Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s extended interview

Anderson Cooper spoke with Rachel Goldberg-Polin, an American Israeli mother whose son, Hersh, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 and then executed. Editor's note: This podcast is an extended version of the interview that was broadcast on 60 Minutes on Sunday, April 19, 2026. This extended version was condensed for clarity. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump has threatened to take - or make a deal for - whatever is left of the regime's highly enriched uranium stockpile - a key component to building nuclear weapons. HEU removal operations can be high stakes and dangerous, but the U.S. has successfully done it before in 1994 – safely removing 600 kilograms of weapons grade uranium from Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union. Correspondent Cecilia Vega reports on the covert operation, code named Project Sapphire, and if it could be the blueprint for how to get HEU out of Iran. Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. On his 328th day in captivity, Hersh was executed in a tunnel in Gaza. Now, Rachel Goldberg-Polin is trying to figure out how to live after losing her child. Anderson Cooper interviews Goldberg-Polin about Hersh and her grief, and speaks with Or Levy, a released hostage who was in captivity with Hersh, and credits him with helping to save his life. Acclaimed drummer of The Police Stewart Copeland and celebrated British naturalist Martyn Stewart have created Wild Concerto, a pioneering album that mixes authentic animal sounds with original music. It’s based on Stewart’s unparalleled audio archive of the world’s wild inhabitants. Correspondent Bill Whitaker joins the pair at the iconic Abbey Road Studios as Copeland and Stewart give Mother Nature’s orchestra the star treatment.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nearly one year after the election of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV, Norah O’Donnell speaks with three of the most influential American cardinals in their first joint interview about how Pope Leo’s church has emerged as a voice of moral opposition to the war with Iran and against the crackdown on immigration in the U.S. O’Donnell interviews Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, NJ, about the effect Pope Leo is having on the Catholic Church. She also travels to Italy to visit Castel Gandolfo, the 400-year-old papal summer retreat. Continuing the work of his predecessor, Pope Francis, Pope Leo is opening the property up to the world to create opportunities for migrants and the less fortunate. 60 MINUTES investigates a scheme putting us at risk on our roadways - the rise of dangerous commercial trucking fleets called chameleon carriers. Known for flouting federal regulations and racking up safety violations, these often foreign owned and operated networks are four times more likely to be involved in severe crashes. Bill Whitaker reports on one such scheme - Super Ego - a network of commercial trucking and leasing companies that is currently under federal investigation and named in a class action lawsuit. The coastal waters around Cape Town, South Africa had long been a global destination for seeing great white sharks. That was until about ten years ago, when these feared predators began washing up on beaches with their livers missing. Correspondent Anderson Cooper goes to South Africa to investigate a whodunnit that’s fueled a bitter feud among scientists and conservationists who can’t agree on who, or what, is the real culprit. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the affordable care marketplace has seen premiums rise and Medicaid faces its biggest cuts ever, correspondent Scott Pelley revisits one charity, Remote Area Medical, that delivers aid to Americans cut off from healthcare by location and cost. At one of RAM’s free, pop-up clinics, Pelley meets patients sleeping in their cars and standing in line, many hundreds of miles from their homes, in desperate need of care. Countries around the world have built high-speed rail - why has it failed to catch on in the U.S.? An ambitious state-run project connecting L.A. and San Francisco is vastly behind schedule and has seen costs balloon. One private company is hoping it can succeed where the public sector hasn’t – but that too faces challenges. Correspondent Jon Wertheim reports on the state of high-speed rail in the U.S. – which has become a stand-in for a broader question: can America still build big things?  Every year on Mardi Gras Day, Black revelers roam the backstreets of New Orleans in dazzling, hand-sewn suits that take an entire year to create. Correspondent Bill Whitaker meets the Mardi Gras Indians, also known as Black Masking Indians, one of America’s last secret societies, who are preserving a culture that dates to at least the 1800s. It’s a tradition marked by resilience and resistance that honors their ancestors. Nichole Marks is the producer.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Long lines at the airport and a runway crash this week have been a reminder of how the country’s busiest airports are stretched thin. It all comes a year after a collision between American Airlines flight 5342 and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. marked the deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with an air traffic controller inside the tower on the day of the collision and reports on what went wrong and what needs to change. How has Ukraine been able to level the battlefield in the war against Russia? By using remotely controlled and unmanned drones, including on land and sea, against the invading Russian troops. CBS News’ Holly Williams reports the U.S. military is now learning from Ukraine's innovative, battle-tested drone expertise.  60 MINUTES explores an epic underworld of caverns the size of skyscrapers, known as Hang Son Doong in Vietnam, over a multi-day expedition. The journey reveals a colossal subterranean world: rivers, limestone rock, dense jungle and an underground lake. Correspondent Scott Pelley speaks with the cavers who discovered and surveyed the cave in 2009. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In what might be the ultimate front of the U.S. trade war with China, correspondent Jon Wertheim reports from the only active rare earth mine in the U.S., deep in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border.  Shipbuilding in the United States has been decimated over the decades by shortsighted policies and neglect. Today, the U.S. builds about three large cargo ships a year while China rolls out around 1,000. The Trump administration has called this a national security crisis and is making it a priority to revive the American shipbuilding industry. One solution comes from our ally South Korea. Hanwha, the Korean ship-making giant, is hoping to help resurrect the industry in the U.S. by buying and reviving the Philadelphia shipyard. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports from Hanwha’s shipyards in Korea and Philadelphia. Progress in treating diseases of aging like Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia has been difficult, and a new research initiative finds dogs could help change that. Scientists are discovering the biology of aging in our canine companions has striking parallels to human aging. Our dogs develop many of the same diseases we do and have remarkably similar brain structures. Correspondent Anderson Cooper reports on the Dog Aging Project that is collecting data on more than 50,000 dogs across the country in hopes of providing insight into both canine and human disease and revealing pathways to help humans and our four-legged friends live longer, healthier lives. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even in its weakened state after two weeks of war, Iran maintains its chokehold on one of the most important shipping channels in the world: the Strait of Hormuz. Correspondent Cecilia Vega reports on the unprecedented closure of the 21-mile-wide waterway, which has stranded roughly 700 cargo ships and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf - increasing gas prices to their highest level in years. Iran has made extensive use of cheap drones in the war to menace the U.S. military and allies in the Persian Gulf. One emerging counter-drone solution is laser systems. Correspondent Lesley Stahl visits one Pentagon contractor developing such a system to explore how advanced lasers work and whether they are ready to be deployed. Sixteen years after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the government has all but collapsed and gangs battle for control of the capital Port-au-Prince. Correspondent Anderson Cooper visits an orphanage in the besieged city where children have been sheltered from the violence for more than four years. Run by bestselling author Mitch Albom, the organization Have Faith Haiti takes in vulnerable children and, with an emphasis on education and faith, gives them a chance at an extraordinary future. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The latest installment of a 60 MINUTES investigation reveals new details of a recent, classified U.S. mission that, sources tell us, obtained a type of microwave weapon. This device is believed to be similar to a weapon that has been used against U.S. diplomats, spies, and military officers, causing mysterious brain injuries. Correspondent Scott Pelley shares in-depth reporting on the existence of the weapon; the unexplained injuries, known as Havana Syndrome; and studies from the federal government challenging the origin of the attacks.  And, CBS News' chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett interviews Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington, D.C. about the state of the war in Iran. Andy Court, Andy Bast, and Arden Farhi are the producers.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a surprise joint attack by U.S. and Israeli military forces on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, correspondent Scott Pelley interviews Reza Pahlavi, a leader of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic Republic and the son of the late deposed shah of Iran. Pelley reports on this pivotal moment for Iran's leadership, whether regime change is coming, who leads a future transition, and what happens to Iran’s nuclear weapons. Federal judges are under threat as never before. A 60 MINUTES investigation found that judges who have ruled against the Trump administration have become top targets. 60 MINUTES spoke with 26 federal judges – 9 Democratic appointees and 17 Republican, both sitting and retired. As Bill Whitaker reports, the sitting judges tell 60 MINUTES they feel under siege – and fear for their safety and for the future of the country. For the past two weeks, the father of an accused mass shooter has been on trial in Barrow County, Georgia. Prosecutors there say he ignored glaring red flags before his teenage son shot up Apalachee High - a tragedy that left 4 dead. This is not the first time the parent has been put on trial. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on an earlier, precedent-setting case from Oxford, Michigan where both the school shooter and his parents now sit behind bars, raising the question: Will holding parents accountable help break the cycle of school shootings in America? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Correspondent Cecilia Vega reports from McDowell County, W.Va. – once the nation’s largest coal producer, and now one of the poorest places in the country, where the food stamp program started and the opioid crisis took hold. When President Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all third world countries” to the U.S., there was one exception: the resettlement of white South African refugees, mostly Afrikaners. The president has said white farmers in the country are victims of genocide, a claim the government of South Africa disputes. Artificial intelligence is being used to make art that is being embraced by many of the world’s most prestigious museums and auction houses, raising an age-old question: what counts as art?  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices