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Quest Means Business
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS From New York Botanical Garden; Tech Firms Make Safety Pledges At The White House; Week Of Extreme Weather Across The Globe; Blockbuster "Barbie" And "Oppenheimer" Hit Cinemas; Judge Sets May 2024 Trial Date For Donald Trump; Legendary Singer Tony Bennett Dead At 96. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired July 21, 2023 - 15:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:47]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: There is an hour to before the end of trading on Wall Street and it looks almost certain that the Dow is going
to extend its winning streak to 10. The markets were up 73, quarter of a point.
Show you the triple stack as well, because the NASDAQ fell so sharply on the back of Tesla and Netflix, and it is a different story there. It is
bouncing around the zero level for change for the NASDAQ. We'll watch it in the hour as we move forward.
There is so much happening over the course of the hour.
President Biden has announced an agreement with AI companies to develop AI more safely. Is that possible? We'll take a look.
The heatwave is redrawing the map for tourists. We're going to discuss the economic impact of climate change, Nobel laureate, Paul Romer will be with
me for that.
And when you want to sweeten things up, the CEO Van Leeuwen Ice Cream on the expansion into summer flavors.
Yes, indeed, it is a summer Friday, live from New York on Friday, July the 21st. I'm Richard Quest and at the New York Botanical Gardens, amongst the
floribunda and the flowers and the trees, I most certainly mean business.
Good evening to you.
Summer Fridays, and today we are at the New York Botanical Gardens, where we'll be showing you the best that they have to offer. We'll be taking a
look and we'll be talking about how this New York institution is preparing itself for the future.
It is a green oasis to be sure, an urban jungle. It is in the Bronx and it is absolutely glorious and beautiful with people coming for all reasons to
enjoy the views, to learn science, research, or if you're just like us, you've come here just to escape.
We will be putting all of that into context as we have our Summer Friday and the ice cream. Let us not forget -- oh, there was a butterfly. I would
-- but I'm sure we'll see plenty more of those before we are finished.
We start though tonight with tech and the pledge from firms to have AI guardrails. Now, it was all set by the White House and it involved seven
leading firms. All the biggies as you'd expect -- Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Inflection, Anthropic. They are making voluntary
commitments.
First of all, external testing before release. In other words, don't just dump something on the market and hope for the best. They're going to share
risks of AI between each other. Proprietary is one thing, watching the world blow up is something else. They are going to have ways to watermark
AI-generated content.
Now, as for the US president, he recognized this wasn't the final answer, but it was an important, crucial first step.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll see more technology change in the next 10 years, or even in the next few years than we've seen
in the last 50 years. That has been an astounding revelation to me, quite frankly.
Artificial intelligence is going to transform the lives of people around the world. The group here will be critical in shepherding that innovation
with responsibility and safety by design to earn the trust of Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Gillian Tett is with me, the editorial board chair and the US editor-at-large for "The Financial Times." She joins me out on Long Island.
Gillian, I am sure you'd be loving it here at the Botanical Gardens, but good to have you with us anyway. Gillian, this move. This all seems very
sensible. It's hardly revolutionary. It's amongst the big players, but it only goes so far and it doesn't take account of bad actors.
GILLIAN TETT, EDITORIAL BOARD CHAIR AND US EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "THE FINANCIAL TIMES": Absolutely.
I mean, Richard, it really depends on whether you want to look at the glass being half full or half empty this Friday afternoon, and since the sun is
shining and you're The Gardens, maybe you want to be half full today.
The good news is that they have come together, these seven companies. They have taken some very sensible first steps. Perhaps the easiest one to
understand is the issue about watermarking. And that's of real importance right now given that we have the 2024 election looming, and there's a real
risk of deepfakes creating havoc, without some measures to try and rein that in. So that's the good news.
[15:05:24]
The other bit of good news is that everyone recognizes that this is just a first step, there's a lot further to go.
And the third bit of good news is that this isn't just necessarily America acting alone. You do actually have increasing desire on the part of
particularly the British and the European Union, to collaborate in some form around AI controls.
And in fact, this meeting today is setting up the White House for a big meeting with Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister in September.
QUEST: Right.
TETT: The bad news, though, as President Biden himself said, is that this is really just the first step. And the question is, what are people
outside these seven big companies going to do? Are they going to observe these controls as well or not?
QUEST: But Gillian, Meta, of course, with its open source AI, basically saying, anybody who wants to have a bash at this can have a bash at it and
we'll learn from it versus OpenAI, which is sort of proprietary.
I mean, what is the number one risk here that they are trying to ameliorate? Is it AI gone wild? And, you know, the rogue AI, the killer
drone? Or is it disinformation, which is far more prevalent or likely?
TETT: Well, there are really two risks here. One is what are humans going to do with the machines? Can they use AI for all kinds of malevolent
reasons, like, for example, to create misinformation deepfakes? Or are we worried about the machines going mad instead of humans going mad and the
machines essentially spinning out of control? And the short answer is, we're worried about both.
Meta is incredibly important here for two reasons. One is it actually has released a whole new wave of AI tools very recently that people can use.
They're doing this in the name of democratization, which sounds like a great idea until you think it's a bit like putting sort of nuclear power
recipes out for everybody to read or nuclear weapon recipes for everyone to read.
And the real danger here isn't nuclear bombs don't create more nuclear bombs, but AI enabled machines can create more powerful AI machines, it
seems.
But the other reason why it's important to think about Meta is that, essentially with the launch of social media, which in some ways was the
first point of contact between humans and AI, if you like, the content curation. With a larger social media, there weren't these kinds of controls
in place at all. You couldn't get the big companies to come together and agree anything.
So in some ways, people are trying to learn from the bad Facebook experience of the past, and do a bit better with the second AI contact
between AI and humans.
QUEST: But Gillian, unless China signs on as well and unless all those weird places in St. Petersburg that are all doing strange things that no
one knows about out of Russia, unless Russia signs on, it takes us so far, but not that far.
TETT: Well, that is actually the key point. And the White House is trying to walk a tightrope between making sure that the US has enough space to
innovate rapidly to make sure that China or even Russia, but primarily China doesn't leap ahead, but at the same time making sure that there are
controls.
Now, interestingly enough, the Chinese themselves have signaled to White House officials recently in backdoor channels that they would like to talk
about some kind of joint collaboration or cooperation around trying to introduce some risk controls.
This may just be a faint, but it may also indicate that the Chinese themselves are quite concerned about AI spinning out of control. Yes, they
like the idea of using AI tools for authoritarian reasons but they don't like a world where suddenly the AI machines start to all crack jokes about
Xi Jinping, or something else.
So there is a lot to play for here, and the one thing that is very clear is absolutely everybody I know inside the AI world is concerned.
QUEST: Gillian Tett, have a lovely weekend. Thank you for joining us. Gillian Tett of "The FT" joining us.
TETT: Stay chip in The Garden.
QUEST: Absolutely. Gorgeous in The Garden, nice and cool, actually.
Well, earlier in this week, of course, you will be familiar, we were in Nice, from the south of France where it was absolutely schvitzing. It was
so hot, and in fact, the whole of Southern Europe, a brutal week of hot weather across the northern hemispheric summer.
In the United States, you have heat domes in US and Asia, which is causing massive heatwaves and flooding. The weather seems to have gone mad, as they
might say.
Europe is battling extreme temperatures. It is fifth day of blazes, fires, near Athens which is causing great concern.
[15:10:10]
For those who have to work in this, it is unbearable, especially if you're, for example, the garbage workers or indeed, you're driving vehicles that
don't have air conditioning.
So, at the Acropolis, in Rome; at Naples, transport workers have all demanded air-conditioned vehicles. Meanwhile, in Rome, garbage collectors
have threatened to strike if forced to work in the hottest hours of the day.
The signs are that the current heatwave is redrawing the map. Tourists are now thinking instead of oh, let's go to Southern Europe where it's going to
be nice and warm. to potentially let's avoid those areas in Southern Europe, which we now know will be blisteringly hot.
CNN's Anna Stewart looks at the map.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Parts of Southern Europe aren't just uncomfortably hot, but actually in some cases, dangerously hot.
Looking at a heat map of Europe, you can see some of those hotspots. The land surface temperature hit 45 degrees Celsius in Rome, Italy and in
Bucharest, Romania, and actually it reached 50 degrees Celsius in Nicosia, Cyprus and a city of Catania in Southern Italy.
In fact, it is so hot that some tourist attractions like the Acropolis in Athens were closed for afternoons and in Rome, a command center has been
set up to ensure tourists queuing to see attractions have access to water, misting stations, and shade.
Around eight percent of Europeans surveyed by the European Travel Commission said the possibility of extreme weather was their biggest
concern when planning a trip. Last summer, nearly 62,000 people died from heat-related issues in Europe according to the journal, "Nature Medicine."
Europe's Mediterranean does remain the most popular in terms of destinations for European travelers, according to the ETC, that may change.
They say the number of European tourists planning to travel to the Med this summer and autumn has actually dropped by 10 percent from last year.
Some of that may be attributed to issues around affordability given high inflation and a drop off from the post COVID tourism resurgence. However,
they are also seeing a surge in popularity for countries like Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Ireland which have cooler climes.
For those countries impacted by this heatwave, that kind of shift will be concerning. Many rely heavily on tourism that made up 18.5 percent of the
Greek economy and more than 10 percent of Italy's according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
And scientists are clear that due to climate change, extreme weather events like this will only become more frequent and intense.
Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: So joining me is Paul Romer, the university professor from Boston College, the former chief economist at the World Bank, and Nobel to your
name as well, Paul. Good to see you, sir.
PAUL ROMER, PROFESSOR, BOSTON COLLEGE: Good to see you again.
QUEST: Thank you for joining us here at the New York Botanical Garden. Very kind of you.
Paying for climate, sir. The one thing I've discovered over the years is that everybody thinks something should be done. Nobody wants to pay the
bill, and in any event, the bill is going to be humongous.
ROMER: This is the problem where when we have to establish collective action. When it is something we can do ourselves to solve a problem, humans
are good at that. When we have to work together, we are not as good at it, but we have mechanisms like governments, which in the past used to be able
to do this.
Right now the problem is, those mechanisms aren't working either.
The other thing is that --
QUEST: Is there the money available? Because I've done several debates on climate finance, and everybody says the projects are there, but the
leverage of the finance isn't?
ROMER: Look, the simple answer is that when you've got a collective action problem, you've got to raise tax money, spend the tax revenue to
solve the problem. So if you're committed to no taxes, there is no money, there is no solution. But if we just pay some taxes, we can actually be
better off than if we just do nothing.
QUEST: And this idea that the rich countries, the developed world has to subsidize the climate endeavors of the developing world, let alone this
idea of well, you all grew, let us grow first and then we'll do something about it.
ROMER: Yes, I don't think that's the right way to frame the question. The problem is we're suffering costs anyway.
In North America right now, lots of people who used to be able to walk in the forests can't send their kids out in the forest. They can't go walk
because ticks have expanded. So this is the kind of change in the map. It isn't just like the heat domes, but parts of the forest you can safely walk
in the United States have radically reduced. That's a big loss.
If we spent a little bit of money to then try and reduce the carbon emissions, we could get are forests back.
QUEST: Do we have the money? You're talking about inflation. I mean, everybody is now stretched and inflation is coming down, it's not coming
down fast enough. Do you believe we stop tightening and we change the target from two percent?
[15:15:10]
ROMER: Well, first, I mean, we're the richest people who have ever lived, and our children will be even richer than we are. So we have resources, we
just have to decide and this kind of locked in mindset that we can't ever pay any taxes to get something we want. That's what's holding us back.
But now inflation. Inflation is a small problem. It's not as big a problem as climate right now. But for some reason, the Fed seems to be on this
march of folly, where they want to keep increasing interest rates, even though we've seen that inflation is coming down.
QUEST: You've nailed your comments to the mast here.
ROMER: Yes.
QUEST: You're happy to stop at three percent inflation.
ROMER: We could -- no, no, we stop the interest rates and just let inflation keep coming down.
QUEST: What if it doesn't? What if there is an --
ROMER: Well, then --
QUEST: What if there is an embedded spiral of inflationary wage rises?
ROMER: If that happens, this is kind of like, what if AI kind of enslaves us all? Let's wait and see. If it really turns out -- if it's going up, we
can do something, but it has been falling for like 12 months now.
I started talking about this last September that inflation has been coming down, so when it is coming down. Don't do anything. Don't -- just sit
there. Don't take the risk of making it worse.
QUEST: Now, come on, this is a double-edged sword here because there's a sword that says, don't do anything, let it happen; and then there's the
sword at the other side which says, well, you better do something, because if you don't do it, it'll be too late to overdo it and it is better to
overdo it than under do it.
ROMER: I mean, this idea that we're going to miss our chance. I mean, nobody drives that way. It's like you're going down the highway, and you
stop in the middle of the highway, because there might be an accident up ahead?
QUEST: Yes.
ROMER: Why don't you keep driving and then see if there's an accident.
QUEST: Too late.
ROMER: No. Well, but that makes no sense. Because it could be, you could imagine all kinds of possibilities. It's like everybody wants to worry
about the problems we don't have. We don't have a problem of increasing inflation. It's falling inflation right now, and we don't have a problem
with AI bots that are trying to kill us, but you know, everybody wants to think about the problems we don't have.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Thank you for joining us here.
ROMER: Good to see you.
QUEST: Absolutely splendid. Kind of you. Paul Romer joining us.
As we continue tonight. It's wonderfully beautiful out here. We're going to show you refuge in an ever changing climate. Coming up next, a tour of the
urban oasis.
It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight live from the New York Botanical Garden. It's part of our Summer Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:20:14]
QUEST: A visit to the New York Botanical Garden is not only to come to a New York institution, it is to visit a microcosm of Mother Nature herself.
It's vast. Two hundred and fifty acres with huge swathes of green, but the best part about this place is at the different times of the year, as the
seasons change, there are delights wherever you look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice over): A fiesta of exquisite blooms with the hum of bumblebees and breathtaking greenery everywhere, summer is in full bloom
here at the New York Botanical Garden.
Founded during New York's Gilded Age, this beauty sits at the top of New York City. It is a 250-acre crown jewel. A million visitors flock each year
to the Bronx, they come to see ever-changing grounds, bursts of color at the spring Orchid Show, the toy trains at Christmas, and the renowned
artists who use these grounds as their canvas.
A stroll through this garden will take you to almost every major climate, from the arid deserts to the lush rain forests and even lead you to touch,
smell, and yes, taste all that the garden can offer.
QUEST (on camera): Different.
QUEST (voice over): Beyond this undeniable beauty lies a world renowned research center, a stately library that houses one of the largest
collections of plant research and records in the world.
The mission here is simple, to conserve the natural world. The great cycle of life, from birth to death and renewal, fitting in a city that is
constantly reinventing itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (on camera): One of the problems for Jennifer Bernstein who is the CEO of the New York Botanical Garden is to make sure that this place is
relevant for everyone, not just those tourists who visit, or indeed those Manhattanites and other New Yorkers, but what about those who actually live
in the Bronx as well?
This is their garden. It is on their doorstep, and Jennifer Bernstein is very keen to make sure this is a place for all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER BERNSTEIN, CEO, NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN: It's a wonderful place. We have a million visitors a year and many people know our programs
for children. We have a hundred thousand school kids that come every year, but we're also a globally significant plant research organization.
We have a herbarium here with eight million plant specimens that are used by researchers all over the world, so it's a significant institution.
QUEST: You're relatively new in your post. Post-pandemic, relatively new in post. Why did you want to come here? What was the challenge?
BERNSTEIN: Yes, I think it's the combination of a destination that's beloved by New Yorkers and families, the Holiday Train show, all of these
things that are so important to the fabric of New York City, with the educational mission and the science mission.
You know, we started as a science institution, that's how we began. And so the role of plant science right now as we think about the various
challenges that the world is facing seems very important to me. And the opportunity to tell that story in this kind of a place was very exciting.
QUEST: But having stewardship of something as well-known and important, as the Botanical Gardens has its own challenges for you. Namely, every New
Yorker thinks they know better on how you should be running this place and what you should be doing here.
BERNSTEIN: Well, I think everyone can find their own version of the Botanical Garden. That's one of the wonderful things about it. So if you
come for the Rose Garden, when that's in season, that's magnificent. If you want to come for the spring flowering season or for the Orchid Show, as you
mentioned, so everyone can find their way into it.
QUEST: If I go to the Met, I must see X; if I go to the National Gallery in London, it's clearly why. What's your must-see?
BERNSTEIN: Well, we're in it. You know, here at the conservatory, you know the conservatory is a do not miss if you come to the Botanical Garden.
QUEST: So what do we have here? I'm seeing a lot of these. What are they?
BERNSTEIN: These are vultures. This is the creation -- yes, vultures. This is the creation of Ebony Patterson. She is the artist with whom we've
done our summer exhibit this year and she has created all of these sculptures including these plants.
[15:25:04]
I think she was looking at the cycles of death and life and how there's beauty even in the repair of the natural world.
You know, vultures get a -- they have a bad reputation, and they're very ecologically significant. They're important to the ecosystem. And I think
she was exploring that and also looking at, you know, what we've lost as we see biodiversity decline.
QUEST: How important is it to you that the place is accessible. Particularly, you know, we are in the Bronx or whatever, you don't want it
-- so many of New York's big institutions are elitist. How important is it to you that it just, oh, I don't know what it is, but I am just going to
look at the flowers.
BERNSTEIN: You know, cultural institutions in New York in so many ways are cultural anchors. We were places that were COVID vaccination sites, we
were doing all sorts of things for the community.
So you know, from my perspective, during the pandemic, we became open. We have free grounds admission for our Bronx neighbors and that was a practice
that we decided that we would continue. I think it's very important that this is a place that people in the Bronx feel connected to and we have all
kinds of programs to make that come to life.
QUEST: Because you've got to -- it's got to be accessible. People have got to -- you know, people can't come through the front door and feel less
than because they don't understand this, that or the other or whatever.
BERNSTEIN: That's exactly right. But also, the content has to speak to a wide array of people and that is something that we think a lot about.
QUEST: How difficult is it to engage with a younger, membership or a younger audience who have got their noses in a device? And yes, you will
have a -- I mean, I can see, you've got QR codes galore. And I'm sure I can walk around here with the device, and all of that. But that's not really
what this is about, is it? And how do you bridge that?
BERNSTEIN: When people are here, they're also wanting to disconnect a little bit from technology, and so for the people who want to get into that
content, that's great. But I think this is a place where you can look up and look around, breathe deeply, and I think that there's been a real
hunger for that in these last few years. And so we're a place for that, that kind of refuge.
QUEST: If I come to the Orchid Show, would you ask your orchid expert to tell me why my orchids aren't flowering?
BERNSTEIN: I will do that. I will happily do that. And it won't be the first time that he's been asked that question. I can say that for sure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: I shall take her up on her offer, some free advice on my orchids. You'll be very familiar with my orchids at home. These are the pictures I
took this morning. I always manage to get lots of flowers -- lots of green leaves, but very few flowers. In fact, after the last assignment trip, half
the flowers -- that's the best one I've got. Look at that. That one has flowered. But that's sitting on the air conditioner as opposed to on the
window --
I don't know. I need more -- I need more advice. I'm sure plenty of people will happily tell me what I'm doing wrong with my orchids.
Coming up, the climate change is posing real problems for biodiversity. It's a major threat. It is the sort of thing we need to be talking about at
the Botanical Garden.
Monica Medina is with me or will be soon. She leads the Wildlife Conservation Society. After the break.
Monica, come and join me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:31:45]
QUEST: Hello. I'm Richard Quest at New York Botanical Garden. More QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. Cinemas are preparing for two summer
blockbusters. You got the effects of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Have they been as great as we might have thought?
And we are looking forward to. The CEO of the ice cream chain Van Leeuwen is with me. Will be. If he has come without samples he better not bother
coming at all and told that there are samples galore. Then the question is how much ice cream can I eat? We'll find out but only after I've given you
the news headlines. Because this is CNN and, on this network, as always, the news always comes fast.
U.S. federal judge has scheduled Donald Trump to go on trial in May of next year in connection with the mishandling of classified government documents.
Former U.S. president has been indicted on 37 accounts. If found guilty, he could face years in prison. Donald Trump's pleaded not guilty.
A fourth straight night of Russian missile strikes in Odesa hitting Ukrainian warehouses used to store grain. Ukraine says the strikes
destroyed large stocks of peace and body. Claims of attacks are tied to Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Deal.
In Germany, police have called off the search for would be lioness on the loose. There had been no early reports of sightings of the animal just
southwest of Berlin. After an extensive search using drones, helicopters, infrared cameras, police no longer believe there's a missing animal.
That story is just one thing that might be of great interest to our next guest, the president -- the CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society which
operates the Bronx Zoo, which is next door and I'm very lucky. We also get an invitation to go there on a summer Friday. Joining me now is Monica
Medina, the CEO of Wildlife Conservation Society. The -- of all though, we can come and --
MONICA MEDINA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: Please come visit us right next door. The Bronx Zoo is a magnificent place.
250 acres with lots of wildlife. So, anytime, you're welcome.
QUEST: I've never been.
MEDINA: You should come on over. It would be great. We'd love to have you. We'll show you all around.
QUEST: So, the biggest issue is what? Is it -- for wildlife conservation, I sort of -- I hear stories of this species going extinct or that species and
I sort of feel as an inevitability? We just don't seem to be taking it seriously enough.
MEDINA: Well, it's been an overlooked issue for a long time. But it's starting to get its due. Last year, the world came together and agreed we
would try to conserve 30 percent of the planet by 2030. Because that's what we need to hold on to the life that we've got accustomed to. The economies
that depend on things like having clean air, clean water. So we are I think starting to get the right attention to this. And it is a climate solution.
So --
QUEST: But from what you're talking about it's not just stop poaching.
MEDINA: No, no, no.
QUEST: It's about --
MEDINA: We're in an extinction crisis. Scientists have agreed that we are losing species at a rapid rate. Some of it is due to climate change, but
some of it is due to habitat loss. Things like we keep creating more and more farmland, we're burning down the Amazon that's taking away carbon
storage. But it's also really hurting all those incredible species that live there. Some of which we haven't even discovered yet.
[15:35:07]
QUEST: OK. I don't want to be venal or unpleasant about this, but I can -- but at the end of the day, if we can't prevent our own existential crisis
with climate change, what hope of animals got?
MEDINA: Well, I think we can. I have a lot of --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: We don't seem to be willing to.
MEDINA: Well, we have to get the will to do it, we do. And that's why it's so important, Richard, that you're here talking about it today that we're
at this beautiful setting. People love nature. It is a unifier across political parties across countries, north, south, east, west, everywhere,
we appreciate and understand intrinsically how much we humans need nature to survive.
QUEST: You're a diplomat.
MEDINA: Yes, I was.
QUEST: You have -- with the State Department. You know, the, you know the principle of compromise and you know the difficulty of reaching agreement.
Why are you optimistic?
MEDINA: Well, we just came together around ocean conservation, you know, part of the ocean is beyond anyone's national jurisdiction, any country's
jurisdiction. And we just got a big agreement last March to all the world to come together to create protected areas in the ocean. There's so much
marine biodiversity out there in the blue, the deep blue sea. So I do have a lot of hope.
QUEST: Let's just take the polar passage (INAUDIBLE) of the Antarctic. And even the arguments, the strategic arguments now between Russia, the United
States, the E.U. over who's going to have the mineral rights, as global warming makes many more passages available for basically the exploitation.
This is just one example.
MEDINA: Right? Well, we have to adapt, and it -- the Wildlife Conservation Society, not only do you have a wonderful zoo, where we teach people all
about this every day, millions of visitors to our park, but we are working all around the world in 48 states in the U.S. and in more than 50 countries
around the world to help us all adapt, change is a constant, it's always happened. But progress is possible if we get behind the kinds of practical
common sense of connection.
QUEST: Tell me -- so tell me some of the practical things that I can do.
MEDINA: The things that you can do are plant trees. You know, in urban areas, places like this, and trees all along the streets in places like New
York City or Berlin, like you were talking about before. We don't have to live in a summer horror film blockbuster, you know, phenomenon of climate
change. We can plant trees. We can all cut back on our use of fossil fuels. And we're making that transition.
Some of the big things that governments are doing are starting to happen now. But nature hasn't really been tapped into yet. So, things like
building oyster reefs right off the coast here in New York. We are creating all kinds of oyster habitat. It's a tremendous protection for climate
change, for sea-level rise and storm surge. There are all kinds of things that we can do if we just use nature to our advantage.
QUEST: And I undertake care now, you know, it's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS promise coming up. We will visit you.
MEDINA: Please come to visit us at the Wildlife Conservation Society and get that spark that we provide to all our visitors.
QUEST: Good to see you. Thank you so much.
MEDINA: Thank you so much, Richard.
QUEST: I think I hang around long (INAUDIBLE) some ice cream --
(CROSSTALK)
MEDINA: There is some ice cream. We were -- we were trying not to sample it too soon.
QUEST: Thank you -- thank you very much for joining us. When I woke up this morning, and I heard that Tony Bennett had passed away. And then I started
to read the various obituaries and realize this was a singer, a musician that basically spun my entire life. He hit the tops of the charts in the
1960s. And he was still doing so many, many years later. CNN's Stephanie Elam now looks back at the man who left his heart in San Francisco.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A legend on stage, Tony Bennett's career spanned more than 70 years. He was opening up for Pearl Bailey when Bob
Hope discovered him in 1949 in a New York City Club.
BOB HOPE, COMEDIAN: You know, it's been about 16 years since I've discovered you singing in a Greenwich Village nightclub. How come this is
your first appearance on my television show?
TONY BENNETT, AMERICAN SINGER: Well, I've been waiting for you to make good.
ELAM: Bennett had a string of hits in the 50s. But the best was yet to come. He won his first Grammy Award in 1963 for his song, I Left My Heart
In San Francisco and performed it on the Judy Garland Show.
The crooner's unique voice and timeless style helped him win a total of 19 Grammys and two Emmys throughout his career.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony Bennett, ladies and gentleman. Maybe the best pop singer in the whole world.
BENNETT: You know, I asked Sinatra, why do you think we stayed around so long? And he said because we stayed with good songs.
ELAM: But the classics weren't always hits. In the 70s Bennett found himself without a recording contract. He was in debt and battling a drug
problem.
[15:40:01]
BENNETT: I realized that I thought I was doing well with the drugs and it really wasn't.
ELAM: That's when Bennett's on Danny stepped in as his manager. Bennett resigned with Columbia Records and began to revitalize his career. It was
then he discovered a new audience, the MTV generation.
MARGE SIMPSON, FICTIONAL CHARACTER, THE SIMPSONS: Look, it's Tony Bennett.
BENNETT: Hey, good to see you.
The Simpsons. We did a commercial for MTV and they liked it so much they gave me an unplugged special and that one album of the year.
BENNETT: Bennett went on to collaborate with singers like Amy Winehouse for Body and Soul. And Lady Gaga for The Lady is a Tramp.
ELAM: At 85, he became the oldest living artists to hit number one on the Billboard 200 chart with his duets to album. Several years later, he toured
with Lady Gaga to promote their album Cheek to Cheek. Yet Bennett's talent went beyond singing. He was an accomplished painter with artwork at the
Smithsonian.
BENNETT: I have a charmed life because I've always known what I wanted to do.
ELAM: The son of a grocer and a seamstress, Bennett married three times and had four children. He and his third wife Susan founded the Exploring the
Arts Foundation, and open the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York.
BENNETT: Everybody has a dream, hope that something's going to work for them. And then when it happens, it's a great joy.
ELAM: Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016. But with the encouragement of his doctors kept doing what he loved best, singing.
He cut his final album Love for Sale with Lady Gaga and performed with her one last time in two sold-out concerts for his 95th birthday. He's my
musical companion. And he's the greatest singer in the whole world.
ELAM: Aired on CBS, it was a moving tribute to a musical legend.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Bye singer Tony Bennett who died today. We are alive at the New York Botanical Garden. We'll have more after the break. It's QUEST MEANS
BUSINESS on a summer Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:45:16]
QUEST: Two movies have hit the big screen and are doing blockbuster numbers. Barbie, and Oppenheimer. Now these are two movies at the opposite
ends of the spectrum, which is in genres and perhaps obviously of interest, which is all the more remarkable that people are going to see back-to-back
Barbie and Oppenheimer. One after the other. In fact, it's called Barb and Oppenheimer or Barbenheimer or Barbie Oppenheimer. Whatever you like to
call it. Jason Carroll now reports on this new phenomenon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Probably not much of a surprise when one hears something odd has come out of Hollywood. But now
there's This.
CILLIAN MURPHY, ACTOR, OPPENHEIMER: The world will remember this day.
CARROLL (voiceover): That's not a clip from a real movie. It's a fan-driven mashup of two. And it's the answer to anyone out there trying to figure out
what to do when two potentially blockbuster films open on the same day. Barbie?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi Barbie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi Barbie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi Barbie.
CARROLL (voiceover): And Oppenheimer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a matter of life and death.
CARROLL (voiceover): The internet's answer is to see both Barbenheimer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw Barbie in the morning, I saw Oppenheimer in the afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did that go?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the right way --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you see Barbie afterwards as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, OK. Yes, again.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Barbie chaser.
CARROLL (voiceover): There are TikToks tweets and T-shirts. Even a Barbanheimer Wikipedia page promoting what has become a viral marketing
phenomenon, pushing moviegoers to try both.
CARROLL: So I see you've got your Barbie pink on. So the question is will you see Barbie and Oppenheimer or just one?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, both.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both.
CARROLL: (INAUDIBLE)
PRIYA MAHABIR, MOVIEGOER: Yes. We kind of liked the idea of walking into Oppenheimer with full pink. So it's the Barbenheimer experience.
CARROLL (voiceover): Both films are worlds apart.
MARGOT ROBBIE, ACTOR, OPPENHEINER: Do you guys ever think about dying?
CARROLL (voiceover): On the one hand, you have director Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy about a doll experiencing an existential crisis and has to
go to the real world to resolve it. The company behind it, Warner Brothers Discovery, parent company of CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CARROLL (voiceover): And on the other you have Christopher Nolan's biographical thriller for universal about a physicist credited for
creating. Well, you know.
MURPHY: I mean, I'll be gone to see probably 100 percent because I can't wait to see it. I think it's just great for the industry and for audiences
that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out the same day.
ROBBIE: It's a perfect double bill. I think actually start your day with Barbie, then go straight into Oppenheimer and then Barbie chaser.
CARROLL (voiceover): Could a double feature about a plastic doll and the so-called Father of the Atomic Bomb breathed much needed life back into a
movie industry hit hard by streaming disappointing post pandemic box office and now Actors and Writers on strike?
REBECCA RUBIN, FILM AND MEDIA REPORTER, VARIETY: I think this is the best thing that's happened to movie theaters in a really long time because it's
happening really organically.
CARROLL (voiceover): Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: All right. So forget the popcorn if you're going to see the Barbie or Oppenheimer. You need to have ice cream instead. I guess the issue is
what ice cream? What's your ice cream choice change? For example, what do you have to be honeycomb for Barbie and peanut butter and brownie with only
go for Oppenheimer more complicated perhaps, composition. I don't know. After the break, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream will be with us.
I'm delighted to say they've already piqued my interest with lots of samples. Now we'll find out how they taste and how ice cream is doing.
After the break. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Excuse (INAUDIBLE) I have to try the product.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:51:35]
QUEST: It's summer. Summer Friday is absolutely glorious. We're at the New York Botanical Garden. The only one thing that could make it better. Ice
cream. You know the way to my heart is some ice cream and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream has been taking New York by storm lately. There is a whole host of
them here for me to try tonight. And actually, Van Leeuwen itself. There is really a Van Leeuwen. And he's with me, Van Leeuwen.
BEN VAN LEEUWEN, FOUNDER AND CEO, VAN LEEUWEN ARTISAN ICE CREAM: I'm here.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir.
VAN LEEUWEN: Thanks for having me, Richard.
QUEST: You're quite open and honest about your ice cream and the calories and the way (INAUDIBLE) what do you to say about it?
VAN LEEUWEN: So we make the fattiest ice cream on the market. More cream, more eggs, and I would say the best flavoring ingredients. So pistachios
from Sicily, Earl Grey from the Yunnan province of China. I could bore you for hours with the ingredient tails, but I don't do that --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: So why is your ice cream better than anybody else's in that sense? Because -- I mean, look, I love ice cream. Nothing better than ice cream in
a hot summer's day. But getting it to the point where people rave. Why?
VAN LEEUWEN: So when we started making the ice cream in our apartment in Brooklyn 16 years ago, we wanted to make a French custard. So a crema
anglaise, high eggs, high fat, and no stabilizers. Sorry, it's really harder today. So what makes it distinct is more create, more eggs. It's
that simple. As you said, there's no secret. We're super transparent. So we use a lot of the good stuff, no unnecessary stuff.
And then are obsessed, obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with the customer experience.
QUEST: So how --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN LEEUWEN: -- tasting.
QUEST: How are you finding the difficulty in an inflationary period? I mean, all your ingredients are costing more. Your shops are costing more,
your staff costs are costing more, you can't really pass too much on because I guess there's a certain price elasticity of ice cream people
won't pay more than a certain amount or maybe they will.
VAN LEEUWEN: We can't charge 10 bucks a scoop. So last year, cream prices more than doubled. Egg prices tripled. And we operated at a loss. So we
tightened our belts. We fix things where we could but we wouldn't change the product at all. This year things are better. We did raise the prices a
little bit. So we're OK but it's tough.
QUEST: And in terms of how you grow a business, I mean, the man is -- he's opened a branch directly opposite where I live my apartment building. It's
a torture walking past because I do love ice cream. How fast can you expand and how fast do you intend to expand?
VAN LEEUWEN: We're growing at 40 to 50 percent a year. We intend to continue that. As long as there's open space. Open space for really good
ice cream where there -- where that doesn't already exist. And open space for jobs that people were in a nice place.
QUEST: To expand faster, do you change the model? Franchise, selling in third party stores, all these other areas?
VAN LEEUWEN: We are going to do all corporate owned in the United States but next week --
QUEST: Own and operate it.
VAN LEEUWEN: Own and operate. Next week we're opening our first franchise in Singapore. So we're going international for franchising. Domestic --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Why? Why? What's the -- what's the difference? This is fascinating to hear a different corporate strategy inside versus outside. I need to
have some black cherry too but I try this one. But I hear about the strategy.
VAN LEEUWEN: Inside versus outside. So, we right now want to stay focused on the U.S. because there's so much opportunity here and we don't want to
stretch our corporate team too thin.
[15:55:01]
So, we're leaving the Asian operations right now to somebody else. Our product shipped there and building our own manufacturing in Asia as well.
It's one of my favorites.
QUEST: What was your favorite?
VAN LEEUWEN: Favorite this summer has been the peanut butter brownie honeycomb. Oh, go for it. And then we put this ice cream on dry ice, so the
outside is a little warmer than the inside. Sorry.
QUEST: This was excellent stuff.
VAN LEEUWEN: One of my favorites, that one.
QUEST: What would make the worst ice cream? What make would you never make or have you tried to make and you thought, oh, that was --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN LEEUWEN: The worst ice cream I have made was wild licorice ice cream. I sourced the licorice from the Himalayas. It's medicinal. It just wasn't
good. Yes.
QUEST: Best seller?
VAN LEEUWEN: Best seller is honeycomb. Yes.
QUEST: I can see why sir.
VAN LEEUWEN: Richard, thank you so much for having me.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Thank you so much indeed. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. If it's summer, it has to have ice cream. And it has to have a profitable moment after the
break. Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment. On QUEST MEANS BUSINESS we feel it's incredibly important that we actually get out and about visit and broadcast
from the places where you are. It's only that way that we get an idea of what's really happening in the economy, which is why we have been so
pleased this week to have been broadcasting from -- in East where we were able to talk about the heat and the Southern European Summit.
And today from the New York Botanical Garden where we brought you issues of biodiversity, the necessity for institutions to be relevant to the places
where they live and the people that they serve. And indeed, the Wildlife Conservation Society which raises a whole new different area and indeed,
managed to source us an invitation to visit the Bronx Zoo.
It's an embarrassment of mine and a shameful fact that I hadn't visited this place before today or earlier in the week. I haven't been to the Bronx
Zoo. A reminder that so many of our great attractions are out on our doorstep. And I'm going to have a bit of ice cream. Well, who knows what
can happen which is why next week, summer Friday, really interesting, we'll be at the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim Museum where of course so many works of art, work of art in its own right with the building. And another chance for us to bring you
some of the phenomenal places in New York, which is absolutely crucial. As part of our summer Fridays. The work life balance is essential. A bit of
ice cream on Friday. A great weekend ahead. It will restore the vigor and vim for Monday. And we're all back to normal if you will.
And so delighted to have you with us. I hope your weekend is full of ice cream. Where is that ice cream? It's back on ice. Is it excellent waiting
for me as soon as I say, that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this summer Friday night. I'm Richard Quest at the New York Botanical Garden. Whatever you're
up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.
[16:00:16]
I'll see you on Monday. Have a good weekend.
END
