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The Amanpour Hour
Interview With Finnish President Alexander Stubb; Interview With Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel; A Rare And Managed Glimpse Into Putin's Kremlin Life; Interview With "My Name Is Emilia del Valle" Author Isabel Allende; Interview With World War II Veteran Jake Larson. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired May 10, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone. and welcome to "THE AMANPOUR HOUR".
Here's where we're headed this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "This is your victory", he said to them. And those words will long be remembered by those who heard them spoken.
AMANPOUR: 80 years since VE Day, war rages again in Europe. What's the future of the transatlantic alliance in a Trump administration? I asked the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb.
Then, after 18 months of war, Israel doubles down, vowing to occupy most of Gaza while denying food, medicine and water to everyone there.
SHARREN HASKEL, ISRAELI DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: When we are putting military pressure, that is the only reason why the last two ceasefires deals were signed.
AMANPOUR: Deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel joins me.
And --
Putin's iron grip on Russia has now lasted 25 years. We get a rare and managed glimpse into his Kremlin life.
Plus, "My Name is Emilia Del Valle", bestselling author Isabel Allende on her new novel celebrating female strength.
Also --
JAKE LARSON, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: I don't think I was a hero. I was just like anybody else. We were all in this together.
AMANPOUR: On this VE Day, tapping in to truly the greatest generation with 102-year-old American vet Jake Larson from my archives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.
"Do not yield to violence and tyranny. March straight forward and die if need be. Unconquered." Those are the rousing words of Winston Churchill 80 years ago, as he celebrated victory in Europe.
80 years since Nazi Germany surrendered, ending one of the most brutal conflicts ever in history. Here in the U.K. and in other allied nations, people have been celebrating the extraordinary sacrifice of that generation and indeed their refusal to yield to tyranny. And many will hope those values of peace, freedom and democracy will always endure.
The once unbreakable transatlantic bond faces new pressure under the bombastic America First presidency of Donald Trump.
And of course, those decades of peace in Europe were shattered on February 24th, 2022, with Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of his neighbor, Ukraine.
And while Russia celebrates its role in defeating the Nazis, Ukraine fights for its very survival to this day.
President Trump promised to end this war. And while much of his efforts have inexplicably involved directing his ire at the victims, Ukraine, my first guest today says Trump is now running out of patience with Putin.
Finland's President Alexander Stubb, has emerged as a critical figure in Ukraine talks. He recently played golf while meeting with Trump and says engagement rather than disengagement with the president is the best way to persuade America not to abandon Ukraine or Europe.
Here's our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: President Stubb, welcome back to our program.
ALEXANDER STUBB, FINNISH PRESIDENT: Thanks for having me.
AMANPOUR: Can I just first start by asking you, what was your conversation like when you met President Trump and spent hours golfing with him and talking to him, you know, in March I think it was?
What did you say to each other that gives you clarity or maybe confidence about NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance?
STUBB: Yes. I guess the starting point is to say what happens in the golf course stays in the golf course.
AMANPOUR: No, no, no. It needs go worldwide.
(CROSSTALKING)
STUBB: But it does give you context. I mean -- so, basically, on a golf course, a lot of it is of course social, but it did give us an opportunity to discuss a few issues.
I guess this the job of presidents, to try to influence each other and have conversations.
I do say one thing though, there's nothing so far that I have heard from the president or the president's administration or people around him, which would sort of reduce the commitment of the United States to NATO.
[11:04:50]
STUBB: Quite the contrary, the Americans are pushing the Europeans and the other allies to take more responsibility, and I think the Americans are right for doing it.
AMANPOUR: That's fine. But you know, I'm going to get back to that in a minute. But also, President Trump, you know, after a certain period of reaching out to Putin, trying to draw him in with honey, if you like, kind of blaming President Zelenskyy for all of this.
He appears to be having a change of heart, at least publicly after the Vatican meeting. And I believe you were sat next to President Trump during the funeral.
He said, "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently."
Then in the last 24 hours, J. D. Vance said, Russia is, quote, "asking for too much in concessions".
Do you think they're having, I don't know, a moment of clarity, a change of heart?
STUBB: Well, I think, you know, peace negotiations and negotiations about ceasefire are always very complex, and there's always a road that you take and you have different steps on the road.
And I think in the beginning, the Americans rightly tried to convince the Russians to join the negotiating table. But now, I think the response that we're seeing from Russia is haphazard or actually negative.
And now, a lot of the American administration is rightly saying that time is running out. And that's why I think actually we should go for an immediate ceasefire. The Americans have suggested it. The Ukrainians have agreed to it. The Europeans support it. And the only one who doesn't want peace actually is Russia.
I actually think the Americans want peace more than anything else. And now, the tactic might be changing a little bit.
AMANPOUR: So, you know, Russia and China agree on the need to, quote, "remove root causes of the conflict in Ukraine". I mean, they're really staking their claim here.
STUBB: Well, to be honest, if they want to remove the root cause of the conflict, then they have to remove Russia because there is only one aggressor in this war, and that is Russia and Putin.
They could stop the war by a snap of their fingers just by withdrawing.
AMANPOUR: President Trump himself and his administration spoke about potentially -- well, actually, they suggested that Ukraine would have to give up Crimea, that Crimea would be legitimately recognized as Russian.
And they also said that there would be some de jure or de facto recognition of the areas, not only that Russia has occupied since 2014 inside Ukraine, but even those that it doesn't.
STUBB: Well, I can only speak obviously for Finland, and I can guarantee to you that we will never recognize the Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia. We've had a similar experience, of course, with the Soviet Union taking roughly 10 percent of our territory after World War II. That came after a peace settlement and a recognition.
But Crimea has been illegally recognized and there is no peace settlement at this stage yet. So that's why I stress the importance of first stopping the killing, which means a ceasefire -- unconditional ceasefire.
And after that, you start the actual peace negotiations. That is what the Ukrainians want. That is what the Americans want. That is what the Europeans wants. But it is what Russia does not want at this particular stage.
As part of those peace negotiations, you start having conversations about territory, basically about compensation and about justice. But we need to stop the killing first, and I think this is what President Trump and the American administration is working hard on.
AMANPOUR: And finally, I understand, you know, you world leaders have to toe a very, you know, delicate line, you have to -- you are heaping a lot of praise on the United States, but your people are not so thrilled. They don't like this business of being insulted by the U.S. Europeans, we understand, are sort of moving away from buying American.
And not only that, you still, despite your golf, have a 10 percent tariff from President Trump. How are you going to cope with that?
STUBB: Well, I think the ABC of diplomacy is that you work with a world that exists, not with a world which you wish that would exist.
And then you try to influence the things that you can influence. Remember, I come from a relatively small country, albeit with one of the largest militaries in Europe and one of the longest borders with Russia.
So, we feel that the way in which we have an impact is that we are relevant. We're relevant to our European allies, we're relevant to the United States. And then we try to affect different world events, even though sometimes they don't go exactly the way in which we want it.
So, we are quite realistic in what we're trying to do in diplomacy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:09:48]
AMANPOUR: After the break, with starvation imminent in Gaza, Israel announces an expansion of its war there. The country's deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel joins me in a feisty conversation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:14:46]
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
More than 18 months into Israel's war on Gaza, over 50,000 women, children and men have been killed in the fighting, according to authorities there. Aid is drying up and starvation is imminent, while malnutrition is surging as Israels longest and total siege is now deep into its third month.
And this week, Israel announced Operation: Gideon's Chariots, ramping up its military campaign to start after President Trump's planned visit to the region next week.
Far right finance minister Smotrich called it a plan to conquer the entire territory, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Gaza's entire 2 million population will be pushed into about a third of the territory in the south for their own protection.
By the end of the week, Netanyahu's former defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, accused him of hiding behind his extremist coalition partners. Quote, "They are talking about transfer and cleansing Gaza. These are war crimes."
With the fate of the people in Gaza and its own hostages still on the line, Israel's deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, spoke to me about the latest escalation from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Deputy Foreign Minister, welcome to the program.
SHARREN HASKEL, ISRAELI DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: Hello, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Let's first start with the humanitarian crisis. Since the 2nd of March, Israel has prevented all humanitarian supplies from entering, not one piece of bread, not a glass of water, not a single bit of medicine. As I said, it's the longest siege.
2 million Palestinians in Gaza, nearly half of them children, are now surviving on a single meal every two or three days, that's according to the U.N.
Why is Israel doing this? It goes against all its agreements with U.S., with the International Community, everything.
HASKEL: Well, so the first thing I have to mention is that CogAT is monitoring closely and adequately on the situation in Gaza and is reporting back. And, you know, the situation is in Gaza is very far from what the reports are actually saying.
This is not the first time. You know, a year ago it was the same reports, the same saying, talking about starvation and it proved to be a lie. This is the same situation right now.
The fact is that during 42 days of ceasefire, 25,000 trucks entered Gaza. And you know who profited from that? Hamas.
AMANPOUR: Deputy Foreign Minister, are you denying that people have died of starvation in Gaza? Are you denying that there was a famine, that famine is imminent now?
Because this is categorized and reported by international doctors, international humanitarians. Are you denying that, seriously?
HASKEL: These are complete lies. And I'll tell you what, we heard it a year ago. You heard about the starvation and you saw that it was a lie. And this is the situation --
AMANPOUR: No, but we didn't. That's why I'm asking you.
HASKEL: -- as well.
(CROSSTALK)
HASKEL: Absolutely. And I want to say that, look, I know that there's a lot of reporters who prefer their information and their data coming from a terrorist organization like Hamas, who is using it as a tool to try and stop us from -- you know, from fighting this terrorist organization.
I think you should really take any information that come from Gaza through Hamas with not a grain of salt, but with a shovel of salt.
AMANPOUR: OK. So, I understand that you are putting the Israeli government view. You know that this stands in total contrast, I mean total 360, 180-degree contrast with what the rest of the International Community has seen, has proven with its own eyes and has urged you on pain of all sorts of issues to allow food, medicine, and water into people.
I want to know for you -- to you, how do you answer, for instance, an American humanitarian organization, the deliberate delays, denials, and excessive security procedures that surround it is not just a failure of logistics, it's an engineered system of deprivation.
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: And you've got all sorts of allied governments telling you to let aid in. I simply don't understand what it gains you to allow women and children to starve. I don't understand. Even in war.
HASKEL: So, a couple of things. Look, the first thing, it's a lie, ok? This is not Israel's goals and this is not what Israel is doing. It's far from the truth.
The truth is there is no shortage of water at all when we're monitoring out closely on the food supplies.
[11:19:41]
HASKEL: I have to tell you with a testimony also of Liri Alba (ph) who came back, who was in those warehouse, in those tunnels, in those shelters, bases of Hamas, she -- her testimony was that they are stockpiling aid. Ok.
We are working on a humanitarian plan that will distribute humanitarian aid to the people, not to a terrorist organization.
If we are able to distribute humanitarian aid to the people and disconnect Hamas from it, we'll be able to actually shorten our operation and our fight against Hamas.
AMANPOUR: Ok. So, let's ask you about the logic. And this is really important now because your government has taken a very big and expansive new step.
First of all, on expanding the war, as some of your ministers have said to conquer all of Gaza, some of them have said, you know, to eventually displace all the Palestinians.
What do you expect to change after 18 months of trying to do the very same? You are the most powerful military in the region, and you have an enclave with at best rudimentary, but yes, lethal weapons against you.
What do you expect to change in a further expansion of this war that you have not been able to achieve in 18 months?
HASKEL: I want to put everything here on the table, ok. The fact is Israel never wanted this war. We tried to do everything --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: I just want to know what you expect to change. I know what happened.
HASKEL: -- in order prevent it. This war was forced on us.
AMANPOUR: I know.
HASKEL: Our goal -- and we have two goals only. The first one is to bring back our family members who are being held in the dungeons of torture of a death cult. I think every nation would do anything to bring them back home.
And the other one is to bring back our safety and security to our country and eliminate, disarm a terrorist organization.
AMANPOUR: But you just said we need to get our hostages back. That is what the majority of Israel says.
HASKEL: Yes.
AMANPOUR: You're absolutely correct.
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: But your prime minister last week said victory over Hamas, not the return of the hostages was the supreme objective of the war.
One of your ministers, Smotrich, the hostages are not the most important thing. Please explain to me this --
(CROSSTALK)
HASKEL: This is not true. We have --
AMANPOUR: That's what they said.
HASKEL: -- two objectives of the war. One of them is to eliminate Hamas, and the other one is to bring back our hostages.
AMANPOUR: Ok.
HASKEL: And the fact is --
AMANPOUR: Which is the most important.
HASKEL: -- Christiane, that only military pressure brought the last two deals. Hamas has refused to negotiate.
We are going now, yes, with all of our forces in two goals -- eliminating Hamas and bringing back our hostages. And you know what? If within a few weeks -- because of this military pressure, we'll be able to sign another ceasefire that will bring back our family members back home -- our brothers and our cousins, and our grandparents, back to the loving arms of their family, I think that you should be happy with that as well.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: That was an excerpt of our conversation from this week. You can see the full version on our Web site.
Next up, a carefully crafted image of power and control marking 25 years of Russian president Vladimir Putin's rule. A rare and highly stage-managed look behind the Kremlin curtain.
[11:23:04]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
When Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his first term 25 years ago, few could have predicted that the 47-year-old former KGB officer, then democratically-elected, would lead Russia to revanchist goals and start the greatest war in Europe since World War II.
Yesterday, he presided over the country's heavily-choreographed Victory Day parade with China's President Xi as his guest of honor.
The anti-American axis was also on parade, and to mark a quarter century of his rule, Russian state TV released a carefully-curated piece of propaganda this week, offering viewers a rare look at the notoriously closed life of the Russian president.
Here's Fred Pleitgen's report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEIGTEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are very few places in the world that are more intriguing than the Kremlin. And Russian president Vladimir Putin has now given a glimpse, for the first time, into his private quarters inside the Kremlin walls.
Let's check out what was on Russian state TV.
Now, he invited a reporter into his private living room, where he says he once had then-U.S. President Bill Clinton over for tea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clinton?
PLEITGEN: Vladimir Putin, of course, is also known for very healthy diet. And he also showed off his kitchen and there he served Russia's favorite fermented milk drink, kefir, to that very reporter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it all Russian produced?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Of course, where else?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.
PLEITGEN: Now, he also showed off the Kremlin gym. Vladimir Putin, of course, holds a black belt in judo, and he says that he works out for 90 minutes every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two weeks ago, you had a big scratch. I thought this was sports related?
PUTIN: It happened here. I was working out and flung my arm and hit my head. Nothing serious or heroic.
[11:29:47]
PLEITGEN: All this is part of a documentary to mark 25 years of Vladimir Putin in power. And he also showed the chapel that is inside his private quarters.
And of course, we remember that he told President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, that he prayed for Trump when Donald Trump was shot on the campaign trail last year.
Vladimir Putin himself is, of course, already 72 years of age. And he says that he does often think about what will come after he leaves office.
PUTIN: This is an absolutely fundamental matter. So when I think about this, and I think about this constantly, of course, I think about the fact that a person or better yet several people must appear so that people have a choice who could achieve this trust from the citizens of the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Well, it's hard to comment on that. As we said, highly stage managed.
Clearly Ukraine and the rest of the world hopes that he will celebrate his 25 years with a ceasefire in Ukraine.
And as for the fact of his future, he's always insisted he had never changed the constitution to stay in power. Then in 2020, he did just that, giving himself two more terms in power, which if he serves them out, he will be in power until 2036, when he'll be 83 years old.
Coming up, "My Name is Emilia del Valle", female fortitude, self- discovery and the power of journalism. Award-winning novelist Isabel Allende speaks to me about her new book. That's in just a moment.
[11:31:19]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
And now to a giant of fiction, the critically acclaimed Chilean- American writer Isabel Allende. She became a household name with her 1982 novel "The House of the Spirits". She has since published over 28 bestsellers and sold more than 80 million books worldwide, exploring topics like love and grief and female strength.
The beloved novelist now has a new book called "My Name is Emilia del Valle". It's a tale of self-discovery set against the backdrop of Chile's civil war from the perspective of a female war correspondent who was forced to write under a male pen name.
Allende herself cut her teeth as a journalist in Chile before fleeing in 1973 after the U.S.-backed military coup against her own relative, President Salvador Allende.
In our conversation, she brings the soul of a novelist and the clear eyes of a reporter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Isabel Allende, welcome back to our program.
ISABEL ALLENDE, AUTHOR, "MY NAME IS EMILIA DEL VALLE": Thank you so much for having me.
AMANPOUR: So, you know, this one is making, you know, waves again. It's your 28th book. You've sold more than 80 million books around the world. This one follows, as I've said, Emilia del Valle and her journey from sort of, you know, pulp fiction novelist to war correspondent.
So, what inspired this latest work?
ALLENDE: The Civil War in Chile in 1991; that I was always interested in that event because it has echoes with what happened in Chile in 1973.
In both cases, there was a progressive visionary president who wanted to make really important changes in the country and faced brutal opposition from the conservatives and the armed forces intervened.
In the first case, they split. The Navy went with the opposition and the Army with the president. And we had a bloody, horrible civil war in which more Chileans died in four months than in the four years of the war against Peru and Bolivia.
And then in 1973, we also had a progressive president, Allende in this case, that wanted to make changes, faced the opposition, and then we had the military coup.
The armed forces, in this case, did not split. So, they were all united force against the government. And in both instances, the president committed suicide.
AMANPOUR: It's really dramatic. And of course, Allende of 1973 was a relative of yours, a cousin of your father, I believe. And -- just to point that out.
Why did you make your main character -- I guess it might be an obvious question because you're a journalist, but why feature a war correspondent in this novel? And also, she had to write as a man?
ALLENDE: Well, at the beginning she did because women didn't have a place in the press then at that time. There were very few women journalists. Mostly they would write pieces of opinion, chronicle, and social events. But she -- I wanted a neutral voice, someone who would -- was not in either side of the conflict. And because the Americans were involved in the war, because they had interest in the mines in the north, as it happened in 1973 as well, they -- I want -- I thought, well, it will be an American journalist, a war correspondent.
But I love to write about women. And so, I thought, why would they send a woman to cover the war? I said, ok, she speaks Spanish. She has Chilean roots.
And so, one thing after the other it allowed me to build up this character that is unusual, but not the unique case at that time.
[11:39:51]
AMANPOUR: And we've talked about this before. You focus very, very much on women, women who don't necessarily follow conventional laws. Women who are always ahead of their -- ahead of their time.
Tell me about how you chose to portray the women in this book and how -- you know, do you feel you still have to keep doing that given women's place in the world today?
ALLENDE: Of course, but it's not an intentional wish to deliver a message. Not at all. When I write fiction, I just want to tell a story and engage my reader in that story. There's no message, no preaching. But I write about what I like, what I care, what interests me, and those -- that's women's lives.
I'm surrounded by strong women. I have a foundation that works mostly with women. Many of them are refugees, women that have lost everything, that have gone through hell, and they're not victims. They get up on their feet and they take hold of their own destinies. And that is so fascinating to me. That's what I tend to write about.
AMANPOUR: And just to bring it back to today, you live in the United States, California, not far from the Mexico border. You see what's happening in terms of immigrants who you usually like to --
ALLENDE: Yes, my foundation --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: Yes, yes. So, how are you thinking?
ALLENDE: -- my foundation works there.
AMANPOUR: And so, what can you tell us.
ALLENDE: I'm horrified with what's going on, but this is nothing new. This has been happening for several administrations already.
And I wrote a book called, "The Wind Knows My Name", which is the case of a little blind girl that was separated from her mother at the border during the first Trump administration when there was this policy of separating families. And I met her through my foundation. And so, it was just natural to tell her story because I see these stories all the time and it's very hard. I mean, it's hard for people to understand what it means to leave everything behind, including sometimes your family, and go to another place where you will not be welcome to try to find safety and another life.
And there are 117 million refugees in the world. 80 percent of them are women and children, and they're looking for safety
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And just like Isabel Allende and her foundation, we will continue to bring light to the stories of those refugees here on this program.
After the break, 80 years since VE Day, remembering the heroes who fought to secure our freedoms.
[11:42:32]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
Returning now to VE Day, 80 years on. And the turning point, of course, was D-Day. The liberation of Europe would never have happened but for the allied forces who stormed Normandy's beaches on June 6th, 1944.
As time marches on, those heroes grow fewer and fewer. So it is truly extraordinary to meet the survivors -- still proud, still vigorous, and still absolutely sure about why they had to achieve what they did.
Like 101-year-old D-Day veteran Jake Larson. He's become an unlikely TikTok star with almost a million followers now. And last year at the 80th D-Day anniversary at the American cemetery in Normandy, I found the man now fondly known as "Papa Jake".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: You were one of the lucky ones. Do you remember what it was like when -- when they just, I don't know, suddenly you find yourself getting out of one of those landing craft. You're on that beach. Do you remember what it was like?
LARSON: Oh, do I. Like -- like it was yesterday.
I got on a landing craft and I had water right up to my chin. He let us out a little bit too far, but he was just a 17-year-old pilot for that boat.
AMANPOUR: Wow. You were all kids.
LARSON: We were all kids. Yes.
AMANPOUR: And did you know then what you were fighting for? LARSON: Oh, definitely -- that we knew every one of us.
AMANPOUR: Tell us.
LARSON: Every one of us was prepared to give our life to kick Hitler's ass out of Europe.
AMANPOUR: And you did.
LARSON: And we did. We lost quite a few of us. I lost friends, everybody lost friends. But we can't -- we were soldiers. We were prepared to give our life.
AMANPOUR: And now you obviously are a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, and your great grandchildren and your grandchildren are making you into a social media star. You're on TikTok, Jake, since we last met.
LARSON: I don't know how that happened.
AMANPOUR: How did it Happen?
LARSON: It's crazy.
AMANPOUR: And you go by "Papa Jake". You have an actual name.
LARSON: Yes.
AMANPOUR: And why do you do it?
[11:49:47]
LARSON: You know it's not me. It's my granddaughter. She said, oh, it's just a little storytelling thing, she says. And I put a couple of your stories on, on my TikTok.
She came back within a week and said, "Papa, I'm taking you off of my TikTok. I'm going to put you on your own." I said, "You're opening a can of worms here. Why are you putting me on by myself?"
She says, "Because you showed me up on mine."
AMANPOUR: You wrote a book and you told me that it's being used in high schools to teach kids.
LARSON: Yes, grade school to high schools. Yes. It's an honor.
AMANPOUR: Does that make you feel proud?
LARSON: Proud? I have the University of Delaware, the history professor came from Delaware to California to interview me. He interviewed me for four hours. He used that book to train his future professors. And now that interview is in Eisenhower Library in Kansas.
AMANPOUR: Today, it's 80 years since what you all did so heroically. LARSON: I don't think I was a hero. I was just like anybody else. We
were all in this together. I'm not a -- I'm not a hero. I'm a -- people keep calling me hero. I changed that word. I took the o off of a hero. I added t-o there. And people say, well, what's a "here to". I says, I'm here to tell you that heroes are up there. They gave their life. They gave their life so that I could make it.
My god, I had a -- I got a wife, I got children, I got two boys and a girl. I got nine grandchildren, I got 11 great grandchildren. I've got a grandson that's a grandfather. And I'm still going. Crazy.
AMANPOUR: Will you come back again?
LARSON: Oh, God. Yes, I'd come back again just to honor all those who gave their life so that I could be here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Heroes like American Jake Larson are incredible people. They do a great service by telling the story of their sacrifice for younger generations. Because this history is also about memory and never forgetting the extraordinary, enduring gift that these men and women have given us.
And our interview with Jake was recognized with an Emmy nomination last week. He will get the statue if we win.
When we come back celebrating the best and the brightest in country music as the next generation of stars receives its flowers at the ACM. We revisit my conversation with seven-time nominee Rosanne Cash.
[11:53:06]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: And finally, country music celebrated its biggest night of the year this week at the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards, featuring a multitude of stars.
(MUSIC)
AMANPOUR: Including Wynonna Judd, Leann Rimes and Keith Urban honored with the Triple Crown Award. Among the many music legends and past winners who helped shape this industry is Rosanne Cash, country music royalty and the daughter of the legendary Johnny Cash.
Back in 2018, just after releasing her critically acclaimed album, "She Remembers Everything", she gave us an intimate performance. And we spoke about how time has influenced her storied career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So to quote, "I could not have written these songs on this new album ten years ago, not even close. Time is shorter and I have more to say." Tell me about what time has done for you. ROSANNE CASH, COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND: Well, I'm sure you know, as a
woman who has carved her place out in the world in a boys' club, because I did the same. What time has done for me is relieved me of the need to people-please. And it's also given me more confidence. And I've actually had a reverse experience to a lot of people I know, and that they have gotten burnt out at this point in my life.
I feel liberated, I feel more excited about this record than I do about my first one, than I did about my first one, and that's an odd thing that I didn't expect out of aging.
And at this point, I also feel like I don't want to pretend to be younger. I earned it. I'm happy here.
[11:59:48]
AMANPOUR: And every line and every stress and every wrinkle --
(CROSSTALK)
CASH: Well, you know --
AMANPOUR: You earned it. And it's a badge of honor.
CASH: Yes. I mean, I don't love the wrinkles and all of that business, but it is a sign that I've been a couple of places. I've been around the block a few times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Ah, the passage of time. Being around the block a couple of times.
And that's all we have time for.
Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.
I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and I'll see you again next week.
