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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12047791" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bill-cosby" source="Orion">Bill Cosby</keyword> has responded to <keyword id="13043333" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="w-kamau-bell" source="Orion">W. Kamau Bell</keyword>'s documentary "<keyword id="13032225" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="we-need-to-talk-about-cosby" source="Orion">We Need to Talk About Cosby</keyword>." </li><li>In a statement, a Cosby spokesperson described Bell as a "PR hack." </li></ul>Bill Cosby has released a statement in response to Showtime's upcoming docuseries "We Need to Talk About Cosby," which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend.Over the course of four hour-long episodes, the docuseries — which was directed by the comedian and filmmaker W. Kamau Bell — examines Cosby's legacy as a groundbreaking entertainer alongside the sexual-assault allegations that have been made <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-women-who-have-accused-bill-cosby-of-rape-2014-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">against the comedian and actor by more than 60 women</a>.In a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/bill-cosby-kamau-bell-we-need-to-talk-about-cosby-1290653/">statement published in Rolling Stone</a>, Andrew Wyatt, a representative for Cosby, said "Mr. Cosby vehemently denies all allegations waged against him" before directly addressing Bell's documentary. "Let's talk about Bill Cosby," the official statement read. "Mr. Cosby has spent more than 50 years standing with the excluded; made it possible for some to be included; standing with the disenfranchised; and standing with those women and men who were denied respectful work … because of race and gender … within the expanses of the <keyword id="11896019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment" source="Orion">entertainment</keyword> industries."The statement continued to describe Bell as a "PR hack" — a pejorative term to describe someone who produces work just for publicity — and said the recent docuseries highlighted how Cosby "continues to be the target of numerous media that have, for too many years, distorted and omitted truths.""Despite media's repetitive reports of allegations against Mr. Cosby, none have ever been proven in any court of law," the statement read.<div type="image" title="A still from &quot;We Need to Talk About Cosby,&quot; which was directed by W. Kamau Bell." height="673" width="1000" msid="89157183" hostid="261"></div>Wyatt's statement later made direct reference to Bill Cosby's release from prison in 2021.Cosby was convicted on <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosby-sentenced-tk-years-in-prison-for-sexual-assault-2018-9">three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018</a> and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Cosby's sentence, however, <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosbys-sexual-assault-conviction-thrown-out-by-court-2021-6">was overturned last year</a> after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Cosby shouldn't have been <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosby-released-from-prison-sex-assault-conviction-overturned-2021-6">charged due to a deal made by a former prosecutor</a>."Mr. Cosby knows the realities of prosecutorial violations; and that those violations are threats to the integrity of our nation's criminal justice systems. That is a subject matter for a professional documentary," the statement read.In "We Need to Talk About Cosby" — which airs on Showtime this Sunday — Bell uses archive footage as well as interviews with comedians, journalists, lawyers, and several of Cosby's sexual assault accusers to examine the comedian and actor's legacy.In a first-look review of the docuseries, Insider criticized the central thesis of Bell's documentary. "As the last episode in the series draws to a close, Bell reveals his true preoccupation. 'Can you separate the art from the artist?' he ponders in his concluding statements," <a href="https://www.insider.com/we-need-to-talk-about-bill-cosby-sundance-review-2022-1">the review reads</a>."At this moment, the documentary changes. It is no longer an examination of Cosby's legacy but an exercise in endurance. Bell is interested in how bad a set of allegations has to be before fans turn away. This may have been a good starting point for a discussion on the social media app Clubhouse, but it is not a sufficient starting point for a 240-minute Showtime documentary."

Bill Cosby spokesperson slams 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' and calls director W. Kamau Bell a 'PR hack'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Barack Obama won an Emmy on Saturday for his narration on Netflix's "Our Great National Parks."</li><li>The award makes Obama the second US president in history to win an Emmy.</li></ul>Former President Barack Obama won the "Outstanding Narrator" Emmy on Saturday for his narration on the Netflix documentary series "Our Great National Parks."The award makes Obama the second US president in history to win an Emmy, and the first to win in a competitive category. (Former President Dwight Eisenhower was awarded the honorary "Governors Award" in 1956.)It also inches Obama closer to prestigious EGOT status — an acronym used to describe the achievement of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. To date, <a href="https://www.insider.com/who-has-won-an-egot-2017-2#:~:text=The%20ultimate%20achievement%20in%20Hollywood,have%20been%20awarded%20all%20four.">only 17 people have achieved this.</a>Obama has previously won two Grammy Awards in the "Best Spoken Word Album" category for the audiobook readings of his memoirs, "The Audacity of Hope" and "A Promised Land." He would still need to win an Oscar and a Tony to achieve EGOT status.The former president beat out David Attenborough, Lupita Nyong'o, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and W. Kamau Bell to win the Emmy for "Our Great National Parks."The series was produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded by Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. It "shines the spotlight on some of the planet's most spectacular national parks," <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81086133">per Netflix's description of the series.</a>Obama was not in attendance to accept the award. Presenter RuPaul Charles accepted it on his behalf, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/barack-obama-wins-emmy-1235210940/">per The Hollywood Reporter.</a>The series is also nominated for an Emmy in the "Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program" category..

Barack Obama is now halfway to an EGOT after winning an Emmy for narrating a Netflix documentary series

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Showtime's four-part series "<keyword id="13032225" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="we-need-to-talk-about-cosby" source="Orion">We Need to Talk About Cosby</keyword>" debuted at Sundance over the weekend. </li><li>Comedian W. Kamau Bell, a self-described "child" of Cosby, directs.</li></ul>At the outset of "We Need to Talk About Cosby," the new Showtime documentary about the comedian, actor, and accused rapist <keyword id="12047791" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bill-cosby" source="Orion">Bill Cosby</keyword>, director W. Kamau Bell concedes that over the last few years there has been a lot of talk about the man who was once known to millions as "America's dad.""Honestly, it feels like everyone has weighed in," Bell says as a cacophony of images of people discussing Cosby during interviews and talk shows flash onscreen.Bell is correct. The accusations in 2014 that Cosby had, across the span of his six-decade career, drugged, raped, and sexually harassed dozens of women made headlines across the world. (Cosby was <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosby-sentenced-tk-years-in-prison-for-sexual-assault-2018-9">convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018</a> and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Cosby's sentence, however, was <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosbys-sexual-assault-conviction-thrown-out-by-court-2021-6">overturned in 2021 </a>after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Cosby shouldn't have been <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosby-released-from-prison-sex-assault-conviction-overturned-2021-6">charged due to a deal made by a former prosecutor</a>.)In this docuseries, which debuted as a part of the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, Bell, a stand-up comedian best known as the host of CNN's documentary series "United Shades of America," guides sharp commentary with archival footage of Cosby's career.In doing so, the comedian and filmmaker, who describes himself as a "child of Bill Cosby," refuses to make a case against his former hero but rather refuels established debates around his complicated legacy.<h2>The documentary examines Cosby's alleged crimes against his legacy as a groundbreaking Black entertainer </h2><div type="image" title="Phylicia Rashad and Bill Cosby sitting on a couch" height="1080" width="1440" msid="89123678" hostid="261"></div>Across four labored episodes, Bell interviews comedians, journalists, lawyers, and several survivors of Cosby's alleged sexual assaults.Cosby's alleged crimes are recounted in graphic detail, and they are examined alongside extensive discussion of his ground-breaking legacy as a Black entertainer in the United States.Bell makes the sophisticated argument that Cosby's positive representation of Blackness onscreen in his role as a largely apolitical middle-class doctor on the hit 90s comedy "The Cosby Show," for example, allowed him to challenge racial stereotypes while remaining inoffensive to predominantly white power structures. In turn, Bell says Cosby was gifted access to both social and economic capital that helped to shield him from the consequences of his alleged crimes.There are several points throughout the documentary when Bell's contributors begin to exhibit an uneasy admiration for Cosby's powers of deception, but Bell wisely retains his critical eye. Later in the series, the documentary takes aim at specific individuals and institutions that aided Cosby's career and alleged crimes.The academic Marc Lamont Hill, for example, breaks down how Cosby made monetary donations to academic institutions such as Temple University in Philadelphia to acquire academic honors, influence, and the trust of the American public.These themes are tackled with varying levels of maturity across the four episodes. And while they remain disturbing, they are not new or groundbreaking. Critics and commentators have rightly highlighted the link between Cosby's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30194819">proximity to social movements and America's elite</a> with his ability to evade justice since stories of his alleged crimes started to surface.So one can only ask why are we here ... again? And who is the collective 'we' Bell is trying to summon in the title of this documentary? <h2>'We Need to Talk About Cosby' loses focus as it tries to reach a conclusion on Cosby's legacy</h2><div type="image" title="Bill Cosby" height="2166" width="2888" msid="89123682" hostid="261"></div>As the last episode in the series draws to a close, Bell reveals his true preoccupation. "Can you separate the art from the artist?" he ponders in his concluding statements.At this moment, the documentary changes. It is no longer an examination of Cosby's legacy but an exercise in endurance. Bell is interested in how bad a set of allegations has to be before fans turn away. This may have been a good starting point for a discussion on the social media app Clubhouse, but it is not a sufficient starting point for a 240-minute Showtime documentary.The more interesting thesis lies in an interrogation of the power imbalances that forced Cosby's alleged victims to stay quiet for so long and continue to structure American society as well as Hollywood's indifference to accused rapists and abusers when they can make film studios and network executives a buck. Not to mention the American legal system that <a href="https://www.insider.com/bill-cosbys-sexual-assault-conviction-thrown-out-by-court-2021-6">allowed Cosby to walk out of prison last year</a> and the precedent it may set to convict accused sexual abusers in the future.To these topics, Bell only scratches the surface.<h2>Grade: C</h2>"We Need to Talk About Cosby" screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and will premiere on Showtime on January 30.

The new Bill Cosby documentary 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' refuses to make a case against him

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This week, CNN CEO Chris Licht was fired after a scathing profile was published in the Atlantic.</li><li>In the profile, Licht details his own thoughts about how diversity should be defined in the media industry.</li></ul>The new CNN was going to be a lot less partisan. Or, at least, that was the plan. As the now-ousted CEO Chris Licht <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/18/business/media/chris-licht-cnn.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained it</a> mid-way through his rocky year-long tenure, the CNN he envisioned would appeal to "normal" viewers ("normal," but not "vanilla, centrist, or boring.") More "rational" conversations, and less "inflammatory" journalism. But as the network soured on the anti-MAGA set, Licht seemingly had no problem welcoming voices sympathetic to far-right issues — like NRA-approved firearms reporter <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cnn-slammed-hiring-nra-approved-203032672.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Gutowski</a>, and, of course, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-staffers-were-horrified-watching-network-conduct-trump-town-hall-2023-5">Trump</a> himself, in a controversial town hall. In a scathing <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/06/cnn-ratings-chris-licht-trump/674255/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">profile</a> for the Atlantic, journalist Tim Alberta noted that Licht wanted the CNN town hall with the ex-president to be "extra Trumpy," writing that Licht "wasn't scared to bring a bunch of MAGA enthusiasts onto his set." Licht's team went as far as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/06/cnn-ratings-chris-licht-trump/674255/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scrubbing</a> the words "SEXUAL ABUSE" from a chyron after Trump was found liable of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in seeming deference to the presidential candidate, Alberta reported. Licht symbolically met with a number of <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/21/cnn-boss-licht-capitol-hill-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">politicians</a> from both sides of the aisle and successfully brought back some GOP members who had been absent from CNN, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/18/business/media/chris-licht-cnn.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">including</a> Kevin McCarthy and Rick Scott. Meanwhile, it was widely noted that Jim Acosta's weekend show became more <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/07/1180686988/cnn-chris-licht-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subdued</a> in tone and Brian Stelter's "Reliable Sources," where he often called out lies and misinformation, was canceled. As Licht's boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, put it, "Republicans are back on the air." In that effort to make CNN more palatable for "all" viewers, who comes to mind, and who gets overlooked? In Alberta's profile, Licht claimed to be operating under his own idea of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-ceo-chris-licht-media-lack-of-diversity-atlantic-2023-6">diversity</a>," one that does not include "virtue signaling." "A Black person, a brown person and an Asian woman that all graduated the same year from Harvard is not diversity," Licht told Alberta, repeating a statement he made at a conference that stirred controversy among his own DEI staff at CNN."I think 'Defund the police' would've been covered differently if newsrooms were filled with people who had lived in public housing," Licht continued. When pressed by Alberta to elaborate on why, Licht responded, "They have a different relationship with their need with the police."But where are those correspondents? (When approached by Insider, CNN did not offer a comment.)In a <a href="https://twitter.com/franklinleonard/status/1664681721579859969" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweet</a> following the Atlantic article, media exec Franklin Leonard posed the question, "Personally I wonder how many residents of public housing CNN has had on as guests to discuss defund the police, or how many people who grew up in public housing Chris Licht has hired since he took the job."The Washington Post's Perry Bacon Jr. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/06/anti-woke-centrism-cnn-chris-licht-atlantic-profile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote that</a>, rather than reject a political viewpoint, Licht had embraced "anti-woke centrism."<h2>Diversity in action</h2>During Licht's tenure, his on-camera hires included analyst John Miller, a former police official who led the NYPD during its controversial <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/3635955-muslim-groups-knock-cnn-for-hire-of-former-nypd-official/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">program</a> of allegedly <a href="https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-the-nypd-muslim-surveillance-and-mapping-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monitoring</a> Muslims in the city post-9/11. Miller spent much of his life and career in New York City and married into the prominent Lehman family.He also brought on medical correspondent <a href="https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2022/09/06/dr-tara-narula-joins-cnn-as-a-medical-correspondent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Tara Narula</a>, who not only graduated from Stanford, but finished her residency at Harvard.Don Lemon, conversely, whom Licht unceremoniously fired, attended a Catholic school in a still-segregated Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father fought to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/watch/extras/dons-dad-and-the-civil-rights-movement#:~:text=Don%20Lemon%20discovers%20his%20late,desegregate%20the%20public%20transportation%20buses." target="_blank" rel="noopener">integrate</a> the public transport system. He attended LSU as a <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/don-lemon-anchor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican</a> where he voted for Reagan, and built his career in Birmingham, Alabama.Licht also terminated the shows of on-air personalities like Lisa Ling, the child of Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants, and W. Kamau Bell, who spent his childhood in places like Mobile, Alabama, and has faced public <a href="https://jezebel.com/waitress-assumes-kamau-bell-is-begging-from-white-wife-1682875176" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discrimination</a> for his interracial marriage. Neither graduated college.Even when Licht made hires that fit parts of his own definition of "diversity," they often countered other aspects of his own principles.Former Representative from New York Mondaire Jones, another commentator brought on during Licht's reign, also attended both Stanford and Harvard. Jones also <a href="https://mondaireforcongress.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grew up</a> in public housing, raised by a single mother who worked multiple jobs. For what it is worth, Jones was a vocal advocate of the "Defund the police" movement, before softening his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/13/opinion/mondaire-jones-nyt-interview.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stance</a> during a reelection.The diversity Licht did seem to value was geographic diversity, which can be a coded way of saying "not from the liberal coasts."Licht championed Kaitlin Collins, a well-liked former White House reporter who previously worked at the Daily Caller and grew up in Alabama. He added her to the morning show alongside Lemon and Poppy Harlow. After Lemon's exit, Licht chose Collins as a primetime anchor over Laura Coates, much to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-laura-coates-loses-anchor-slot-concerns-black-representation-2023-4">ire</a> of staffers who expressed frustration that the network's pivot under Licht was happening at the expense of journalists of color. Zaslav, the WarnerBros. Discovery CEO who remains the ultimate boss at CNN, reportedly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-28/warner-bros-discovery-leadership-draws-ire-over-diversity#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> friends that gender and racial diversity would not be a "top priority" in hiring his leadership team. Instead, he would just focus on hiring "the best" people. That supposedly color-blind mentality is often expressed by those who don't understand the added value of perspectives brought on by true racial diversity.In the Atlantic profile, Licht refers to his favorite analogy to explain his form of "absolute truth" journalism: "We can debate whether we like rain or we don't like rain, as long as we acknowledge when it's raining outside." Yet, that "truth" is <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/195-the-rashomon-effect" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rarely</a> as black and white as Licht seems to imply.In the US, police outside the White House denied using tear gas, while protestors <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/2/21278559/tear-gas-white-house-protest-park-police" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> being attacked. In Asia, the Hmong people reported watching their communities be targets of chemical warfare, while scientists at Harvard claimed the yellow rain was nothing more than bee pollen.When the "truth" becomes centered on a Western, male point of view, we lose the perspectives, the voices, and ultimately the freedom of expression of everyone else.

What we talk about when we talk about diversity, and CNN

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A trio of longtime executives have taken charge at CNN following the exit of Chris Licht.</li><li>"It's really about listening now and executing and getting back to work," says COO David Leavy.</li></ul>There's a moment in Tim Alberta's brutal <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/06/cnn-ratings-chris-licht-trump/674255/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">profile</a> of CNN's now-former CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-ceo-chris-licht-is-reportedly-stepping-down-puck-2023-6">Chris Licht</a> where Licht awkwardly takes a jab at his predecessor Jeff Zucker. Grabbing a long metal pole during a workout with his trainer, Licht says through clenched teeth, "Zucker couldn't do this shit."The following Monday, as Licht attempted to quell growing calls for his ouster, Licht told CNN staff: "As I read that article, I found myself thinking, CNN is not about me. I should not be in the news unless it's taking arrows for you. Your work is what should be written about."The sense that Licht had made it all about him, while overseeing a precipitous drop in ratings, had made things untenable. Licht's decision to move his office to a grander and less accessible space high above the newsroom, his sharp criticism of some of CNN's journalism under his well-liked and very hands-on predecessor, and his disastrous attempt to parlay his previous success producing "Morning Joe" into revamping "CNN This Morning," while neglecting primetime, all led to a loss of faith in Licht's leadership. The last straw might have been Licht's most ambitious play, a town hall with former President Donald Trump, which angered CNN's core audience and even sparked a public rebuke from Christiane Amanpour.Licht had lost the newsroom, alienating both the rank and file and the network's biggest stars — including, apparently, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper."Maybe put a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-next-leader-probably-going-to-be-a-woman-2023-6">lady in charge</a> of editorial this time?" Vox Media journalist Kara Swisher <a href="https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1666309466319364096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> in the early hours of Tuesday. "My pick for obvious interim leader would be the always classy and hugely talented Amy Entelis. Place your bets, folks!" <div type="image" title="Two men stand on an awards show carpet." height="1846" width="2458" msid="100858103" hostid="261"></div>She was right, in part. At least for now. On Wednesday — less than a week after Alberta's story went live — Licht was out, and Amy Entelis, who has led recruitment and development of original programming since joining CNN in 2012 from ABC, was among a trio of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-top-executives-under-ceo-chris-licht-fights-for-job-2023-6">longtime executives</a> named to lead the network while parent company Warner Bros. Discovery searches for a new network chief.The others were Virginia Moseley, executive vice president of editorial, who runs breaking news coverage and domestic newsgathering and brings a long track record of overseeing political coverage; and Eric Sherling, executive vice president of US programming, who has had two decades in executive producing and programming with shows like "The Lead With Jake Tapper" and "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" to his credit. David Leavy, who is close with WBD chief executive <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-david-zaslav-new-discovery-warnermedia-chief-2021-5">David Zaslav</a>, will remain in the COO slot that he was named to last week, while continuing to oversee public policy and social responsibility for WBD. All of them will report to Zaslav, who wants the network to continue reflecting a wider variety of political viewpoints, including conservative ones, as it had begun to do under Licht.The immediate task ahead will be to firm up the trust of the newsroom and fill programming holes. Longer term, the job is to stem, if not reverse, CNN's f<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/business/media/cnn-profit-chris-licht.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alling profits and ratings</a> and set a digital strategy, which was upended when WBD pulled the plug on newly launched CNN+ over a year ago. "The team's empowered," Leavy told Insider. "It's really about listening now and executing and getting back to work. It's all about the work and the strategy." CNN must "stop the self-inflicted wounds," he said, but he's bullish about CNN's future. "We're not like Vice or BuzzFeed. We're not going out of business. It's making sure we have good processes, good communication," Leavy said. "The core strategic advantages are pretty sound."As for the idea some have floated that he might return toe WBD full time — after all, his CNN appointment was intended to help Licht right the ship — Leavy said, "This is my new job. I'm not going anywhere."<h2>A perfect storm</h2>While some inside CNN are breathing a sigh of relief that the Licht era is over, the bigger problem remains of reversing CNN's ratings demise and shoring up its business model. For now, the interim leaders, and then whoever is chosen as Licht's successor has their work cut out for them. CNN's primetime lineup remains in flux. Kaitlan Collins is due to debut a new show in the 9 p.m. slot later this month, but her move, along with Don Lemon's dismissal in April, leaves another vacancy to anchor alongside Poppy Harlow on "CNN This Morning." Licht's attempts, reportedly at Zaslav's direction, to make the network a friendlier place for conservative voices never succeeded in bringing in viewers from the right, while moderate and liberal audiences have reportedly been tuning out since the infamous Trump town hall. <div type="image" title="A man waves in front of a red backdrop with the words &quot;The Idol.&quot;" height="4284" width="6426" msid="100858105" hostid="261"></div>"You do have a tough situation," said Jonathan Miller, former top NewsCorp executive and BBC News Board member and current CEO of Integrated Media, on the larger challenges that any new leader of CNN faces."You have almost a perfect storm of the network trying to reinvent itself, personal issues that have come to the fore with the last two leaders, and the paid TV universe is shrinking. No matter what, you're addressing a smaller audience. The thing you can address the most is, what's the audience you're trying to capture?"<h2>'She knows how to bring out the best in people'</h2>While Entelis has been viewed as the leading internal candidate to take over, people who know her emphasized she loves her current job and is focused on the near-term.If Licht was seen as mismanaging CNN's top talent, Entelis, in particular, is known to be the queen of talent. Entelis, 72, who previously spent three decades at ABC, had helped develop everyone from Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel to Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper. She made a name for herself as someone who could spot and nurture talent, zero in on people's strengths, and offer frank feedback. (CNN declined to comment about its CEO search.)Industry sources who know Entelis said she's a credible and trusted executive who will bring the stability the network needs now. "Amy's a legend," a former CNN employee told Insider. "She knows how to bring out the best in people."In her current role as executive vice president for talent and content development at CNN Worldwide, she produced award-winning films and shows, like the Oscar-winning "Navalny" about the Russian opposition leader, and the megahit "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown." <div type="image" title="Four people pose for a picture with the CNN and Masa logos behind them." height="1994" width="3000" msid="100858106" hostid="261"></div>She also <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/jul/23/women-want-shot-at-anchor-seat-in-wake-of-chungs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advocated</a> to put more women in high-profile, hard-news beats. Other projects she championed included Lisa Ling's "This is Life," and W. Kamau Bell's "United Shades of America," which explored race in America and aired from 2016 to 2022. "So does this mean I can have my old job back?" Bell <a href="https://twitter.com/wkamaubell/status/1666456497872617479" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on Wednesday. In a tribute to Entelis for a special issue of Variety in 2019, Tapper — who worked with her both at ABC and at CNN — <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/jake-tapper-amy-entelis-cnn-films-1203353927/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> that her "greatest joy" was to see the people she had brought in and mentored succeed.She's also proven herself as a valuable lieutenant. Just over a year ago, when Zucker was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-president-jeff-zucker-resigns-over-relationship-with-colleague-2022-2">pushed out</a> after failing to disclose a consensual relationship with a colleague, Entelis was a part of the leadership team that steered the ship before Licht stepped into the role. And late last year, when CNN announced it would <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cnn-original-series-films-pull-back-anthony-bourdain-stanley-tucci-1235417063/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pull back</a> production of original series and films — Entelis' wheelhouse — she stayed on, reinventing her role and finding ways to approach longform content in-house.

CNN management focused on 'listening' and 'getting back to work' as the network moves on from Chris Licht

<ul class="summary-list"><li>At the end of March, <keyword id="11893609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cnn" source="Orion">CNN</keyword> launched a paid <keyword id="11899360" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="streaming" source="Orion">streaming</keyword> service: CNN+.</li><li>Two weeks later, the service is struggling to attract viewers.</li></ul>On March 29, yet another new paid video streaming service became available: For $5.99 each month, CNN+ offers access to a library of new and old shows starring well-known faces from the cable news channel.That includes every season of Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown," which concluded with Bourdain's passing in 2018, as well as new shows made specifically for the new service, like "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" The library is a mix of news shows hosted by CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, and culture shows hosted by celebrities like W. Kamau Bell and Anthony Tucci.But just over two weeks after launch, the service is already struggling to attract viewers: Less than 10,000 people are using CNN+ at any given time, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/cnn-plus-low-viewership-numbers-warner-bros-discovery.html">according to a new CNBC report</a> citing unnamed sources.That's an especially weak launch in the context of its competition: Disney Plus boasted <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-plus-has-10-million-sign-ups-since-launch-subscribers-2019-11">over 10 million subscribers</a> on its first day, and NBC's Peacock reported <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peacock-reported-10-million-sign-ups-this-week-2020-7">that many subscribers</a> in its first quarter.Worse, it's nowhere near the number of users CNN was hoping for — upwards of 2 million <keyword id="12651290" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="subscribers" source="Orion">subscribers</keyword> were projected for the first year of <keyword id="13613214" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cnn-plus" source="Orion">CNN Plus</keyword>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/cnn-plus-cuts-warner-brothers-discovery-1be0ac3a-6952-4af0-b8e2-03dd6ae0839c.html">according to an Axios report</a>.CNN+ is one of several streaming services from CNN parent company <keyword id="13613213" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="warner-bros-discovery" source="Orion">Warner Bros. Discovery</keyword>, including <keyword id="11921392" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hbo" source="Orion">HBO</keyword> Max and Discovery Plus. Its launch is complicated by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warner-bros-discovery-leadership-under-ceo-david-zaslav-is-announced-2022-4">just-completed merger of Warner Bros. with Discovery</a>, and the shakeup in leadership at CNN following <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-president-jeff-zucker-resigns-over-relationship-with-colleague-2022-2">the sudden departure of former leader Jeff Zucker</a>."We continue to be happy with the launch and its progress after only two weeks," a CNN spokesperson told Insider. Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (<a href="mailto:bgilbert@insider.com">bgilbert@insider.com</a>), or Twitter DM (<a href="https://twitter.com/RealBenGilbert">@realbengilbert</a>). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

CNN's new streaming service is reportedly off to a rough start, with less than 10,000 daily users

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Comedian Paul Mooney has died, aged 79, his publicist told Insider.</li><li>The publicist added that Mooney died after experiencing a heart attack on Wednesday morning. </li><li>Mooney worked as both an actor and a writer in his career.</li></ul>Comedian Paul Mooney died on Wednesday morning after experiencing a heart attack at his home in Oakland, California, his publicist confirmed to Insider. <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">News</keyword> of the comedian's <keyword id="6355784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="death">death</keyword> was first reported by <a href="https://twitter.com/rolandsmartin/status/1395021175013658627">journalist Roland Martin.</a>In a tweet, Martin wrote in part: "Comedic legend Paul Mooney has passed away. His cousin, Rudy Ealy, just called me from Paul's phone and said he passed away two hours ago after suffering a heart attack at his home in Oakland. He was 79."Mooney's Twitter account also shared a message on Wednesday morning following the news. "Thank you all from the bottom of all of our hearts ...you're all are the best," the tweet reads. "Mooney World .. The Godfather of Comedy - ONE MOON MANY STARS! .. To all in love with this great man.. many thanks."Mooney, whose birth name is Paul Gladney, worked as both an actor and a writer in his career, which spanned seven decades. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1941 and moved to Oakland, California, several years later.He was the head writer on "The Richard Pryor Show" in 1977 and cowrote several of Richard Pryor's comedy albums and "Saturday Night Live" jokes. Mooney also served as a writer on the 1970s sitcom "Sanford and Son," 1990s sketch comedy series "In Living Color," and "Chappelle's Show," which premiered in 2003 before going off the air three years late, where he played a recurring character called Negrodamus.As an actor, he's known for playing Sam Cooke in the 1978 Academy Award-winning film, "The Buddy Holly Story." Mooney also portrayed Junebug in Spike Lee's 2000 satirical-comedy, "Bamboozled," and was most recently cast in the 2016 film "Meet the Blacks."In 2009, Simon &amp; Schuster published Mooney's memoir, titled "<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Black-Is-the-New-White/Paul-Mooney/9781416587965">Black Is the New White.</a>" The book featured a foreword written by comedian Dave Chappelle. Mooney is survived by his four children: Dwayne Mooney, Shane Mooney, Daryl Mooney, and Symeon Mooney.Many celebrities took to social media to remember the famed comedian, including Oscar winner Viola Davis, Ava DuVernay, Maxwell and comedian W. Kamau Bell.

Comedian Paul Mooney dead at 79

<ul class="summary-list"><li>At the end of March, <keyword id="11893609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cnn" source="Orion">CNN</keyword> launched a paid subscription streaming service: CNN+.</li><li>Three weeks later, new parent company <keyword id="13613213" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="warner-bros-discovery" source="Orion">Warner Bros. Discovery</keyword> is shuttering the service.</li></ul>CNN's new paid streaming service, CNN+, is shuttering after just a few weeks of life.The <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> was first reported by <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cnn-plus-shut-down-warner-bros-discovery-1235237913/">Variety</a>, which cited multiple anonymous sources. <keyword id="12094830" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="warner-bros-" source="Orion">Warner Bros.</keyword> Discovery, which acquired CNN along with other former WarnerMedia assets in a $43 billion merger that closed April 8, confirmed the move with a statement from Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide.The service will stop streaming April 30, the company said."As we become Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN will be strongest as part of WBD's streaming strategy which envisions news as an important part of a compelling broader offering along with sports, <keyword id="11896019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="entertainment" source="Orion">entertainment</keyword>, and nonfiction content," Licht said in the statement."We have therefore made the decision to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN's core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital. This is not a decision about quality; we appreciate all of the work, ambition and creativity that went into building CNN+, an organization with terrific talent and compelling programming. But our customers and CNN will be best served with a simpler streaming choice." CNN also announced that Andrew Morse, the executive who led the charge on CNN+, would depart the company. "We are grateful to Andrew for his significant contributions to CNN Digital and CNN+ over the years,'' Licht's statement said. "He and his team created a quality slate of rich and compelling content and helped produce and distribute CNN's journalism around the world on a variety of platforms.''Morse was one of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-michael-bass-amy-entelis-ken-jautz-replace-jeff-zucker-2022-2">three execs who led CNN</a> in the interim following <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-president-jeff-zucker-resigns-over-relationship-with-colleague-2022-2">the sudden departure of former leader Jeff Zucker</a>, in February. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-ukraine-coverage-audiences-insiders-purpose-pride-after-zucker-exit-2022-2">Licht was named as Zucker's replacement</a> on February 26.At an employee town hall in New York on Tuesday soon after the announcement, Licht told CNN+ staffers, "You built a beautiful house but we need an apartment," according to a company insider. CNN+ originally launched on March 29: For $5.99 each month — or $2.99 a month "for life" in an early promotional push — the service offers access to a library of new and old shows starring well-known faces from the cable news channel.That includes every season of Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown," which concluded with Bourdain's death in 2018, as well as new shows made specifically for the new service, like "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" The library is a mix of news shows hosted by CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, and culture shows hosted by celebrities like W. Kamau Bell and Stanley Tucci.Instead, those shows will appear on either CNN or some of its parent company's other streaming services, the memo from Licht said. Current subscribers will reportedly get "prorated refunds" on their subscription fees, <a href="https://twitter.com/grynbaum/status/1517174128071086086">according to The New York Times.</a>The launch of CNN+ was complicated by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warner-bros-discovery-leadership-under-ceo-david-zaslav-is-announced-2022-4">just-completed merger of Warner Bros. with Discovery</a>, and the shakeup in leadership after Zucker's exit. Insider previously reported that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cnn-struggles-to-win-big-nsubscription-numbers-in-first-week-2022-4">CNN spent as much as $250 million on the launch</a> and saw slow adoption of the service out of the gate. Incoming Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is said to have disliked the decision to launch CNN+ just weeks before the completion of the merger, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cnn-plus-shut-down-warner-bros-discovery-1235237913/">according to Variety.</a>Two people familiar with the launch previously told Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warnermedia-ceo-jason-kilar-stepping-down-memo-2022-4">outgoing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar</a> insisted the company stick with the planned Q1 date and not postpone it until after the merger. "It was a vanity project for [Kilar] and Zucker. They wanted to launch it," said one insider.One Warner Bros. Discovery executive told Insider that the service's demise was "a combination of the wrong strategy and wrong capital allocation.""Admittedly we spent way too much, but I'm sad for all the people" losing their jobs, this person said. "It's going to be a tough few months for the company."Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (<a href="mailto:bgilbert@insider.com">bgilbert@insider.com</a>), or Twitter DM (<a href="https://twitter.com/RealBenGilbert">@realbengilbert</a>). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

CNN's new streaming service is shutting down just weeks after its pricey launch, 'a combination of the wrong strategy and wrong capital allocation'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ne0NGHx0a/">Instagram Live</a> interview with former <keyword id="11696" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vice-President">Vice President</keyword> <keyword id="99719" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Joe-Biden">Joe Biden</keyword>, <keyword id="9096091" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uswnt">USWNT</keyword> star <keyword id="2890306" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Megan-Rapinoe">Megan Rapinoe</keyword> joked that she'd like to be considered as his running mate.</li><li>The presumptive Democratic nominee said he'd love to have the pink-haired striker on the ballot but warned that "you would have to take a pay cut to become Vice <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="President">President</keyword>."</li><li>"You know I'm not into that," Rapinoe quipped, referencing the USWNT's equal pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation.</li><li>Dr. Jill Biden, who was also on the call, noted that "every young girl in this country is saying 'Yes, choose her. Choose Megan!'"</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Many prominent American women have quietly been in contention for Joe Biden's coveted vice-presidential position.But only one of the names thrown into the mix belongs to an international soccer star famous for her pink hair and prowess on the pitch.<div type="image" title="Megan Rapinoe" height="1279" width="1705" msid="75496523" hostid="261"></div>Megan Rapinoe — the USWNT star who rose to superstardom after feuding with President Donald Trump on Twitter and subsequently winning a World Cup last summer — interviewed the presumptive democratic nominee and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, in a 44-minute Instagram Live Thursday afternoon.After endorsing the former vice president in the 2020 presidential election, Rapinoe joked that she wanted Biden to consider picking her as his running mate."I don't want to put you on the spot — I think I could still play soccer and do this — but if you need a vice president, I'm just saying I'm available for an interview," Rapinoe said. "We can talk logistics and the details. Put it on your list. No pressure."The Bidens laughed and said they would "love" to see the reigning FIFA Player of the Year on the ballot, with the former second lady going so far as to say "every young girl in this country is saying 'Yes, choose her. Choose Megan!'"<div type="image" title="joe biden jill biden.JPG" height="968" width="1290" msid="75496524" hostid="261"></div>While Joe also seemed on board with the plan, he warned Rapinoe that she "would have to take a pay cut to become Vice President.""You know I'm not into that," Rapinoe quipped back, referencing the USWNT's equal pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation.The OL Reign striker is familiar with the harsh glow of the political spotlight. She had previously endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren for the presidency and has long been a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ community.Throughout quarantine, Rapinoe has used her platform on Instagram to inform and inspire, speaking with everyone from the Bidens, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to standup comedian W. Kamau Bell, ESPN's Katie Nolan, and WNBA legends Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor.Check out Rapinoe's full interview with the Bidens below:<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/megan-rapinoe-vladimir-putin-seems-pretty-gay-instagram-live-2020-4">Megan Rapinoe said Vladimir Putin 'seems pretty gay' and is 'basically a drag queen' in a booze-fueled, 4-hour Instagram Live with Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Penny Taylor</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/nwsl-cannabis-policy-allows-cbd-use-rapinoe-backed-mendi-partnership-2020-4">Major professional sports leagues have been slow to embrace the cannabis revolution. The NWSL and the Rapinoe sisters are breaking the trend.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/video-michael-jordan-trolled-diana-taurasi-for-free-throw-miss-2020-4">Michael Jordan once trolled Diana Taurasi for a year after the WNBA icon missed a free throw at his summer camp</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/alex-morgans-competitive-drive-makes-her-uswnt-icon-2020-4">20 examples of Alex Morgan's competitive drive that has made her a USWNT icon</a></li></ul>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.insider.com/joe-biden-megan-rapinoe-vice-president-2020-5">Insider</a>

Joe Biden joked that he'd love to have USWNT star Megan Rapinoe as his VP, but that she'd 'have to take a pay cut' to take the job

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">CNNAnthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown."</div></div></div><ul><li>CNN is releasing a final season of Anthony Bourdain's docuseries "Parts Unknown" this fall, The Los Angeles Times reports.</li><li>Bourdain committed suicide in June while filming an episode of the series in France.</li><li>The five-episode final season, the 12th in the series, will only feature one episode with Bourdain's voiceover narration, while the other four episodes will piece together footage of Bourdain with follow-up guest interviews that are yet to be filmed. </li></ul>CNN will release a final season of Anthony Bourdain's travel docuseries "Parts Unknown" this fall, The Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-cnn-bourdain-20180801-story.html">reports</a>. Bourdain <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-bourdain-has-died-in-an-apparent-suicide-by-hanging-at-61-2018-6">committed suicide in June</a> while filming an episode of the hit series in France.Amy Entelis, the executive vice president of talent and content at CNN, told the Times that only one episode of the show's final season was completed before Bourdain's death. That episode, filmed in Kenya with W. Kamau Bell, host of CNN's "United Shades of America," will be the only episode of the five-episode season to feature Bourdain's written voiceover narration, Entelis said. The other four episodes will piece together footage of Bourdain with follow-up interviews that are yet to be filmed, featuring guests of the show remembering its late host."Each one will feel slightly different depending on what's gathered in the field," Entelis told the Times. "They will have the full presence of Tony because you'll see him, you'll hear him, you'll watch him. That layer of his narration will be missing, but it will be replaced by other voices of people who are in the episodes."Entelis said that the last episode of the series will be devoted to "how Tony affected the world." It will feature fan reactions to his program and interviews with guests who appeared on the series.The Times notes that in the first half of 2018, commercials on new episodes of "Parts Unknown" earned an average of $8,601, the most of any CNN program, according to Standard <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">Media</keyword> Index. CNN ran the show in re-runs 166 times from October 1, 2017, to June 14 of this year, according to the Times.The series has also had a second life on Netflix. In June, following Bourdain's death, Netflix <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-extends-deal-for-anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-after-fan-petition-2018-6">extended a deal</a> to keep "Parts Unknown" on its service for the foreseeable future, after fans petitioned the company to renew its license for the series, which was set to expire in June.<a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-cnn-bourdain-20180801-story.html">Read the Times feature here.</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-weapons-behind-the-scenes-swords-tommy-dunne-2018-6">How 'Game of Thrones' weapons are made</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

CNN is releasing a final season of Anthony Bourdain's 'Parts Unknown'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Gates Foundation</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/bill-gates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Bill and Melinda Gates</a> foundation is investing millions of dollars in new strategies to create consumable gut-microbe therapies that could change the way our stomachs process food.</li><li>The hope is that new probiotics (which would be far more complex and microbe-rich than yogurt or fermented food) will help both undernourished and obese children live healthier lives.</li><li>Gates has been investing in this kind of microbial bio-therapy for about 10 years, and predicts "we will get a breakthrough" in nutrition in the coming decade.</li></ul>Bill Gates readily admits: he's always been "kind of a weirdo." That's what got the Microsoft co-founder into computers in the first place, he says.But these days, Gates' odd streak is perhaps most apparent when it comes to his fascination with the human gut.In November, Gates brought <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a jar of poop on stage</a> with him at an event in Beijing, just to demonstrate that there could be trillions of virus particles, bacteria, and parasitic worm eggs inside.Read More: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-wants-world-to-move-past-flush-toilets-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Gates is so obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets, he brought a jar of poop onstage in Beijing to prove it</a>Gates' interest in digestion goes beyond the disgusting and debilitating kinds of bacteria in our systems. The billionaire investor recently said that he believes we can re-vamp the inner workings of our guts by seeding the microbial colonies that live inside us."One thing that people are not expecting a breakthrough in that I'm quite optimistic we will get a breakthrough in is understanding nutrition," Gates said during a conversation last week at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He thinks hacking the microbiome is the way to do it. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">The Gates Notes, LLCBill Gates, Melinda Gates and host W. Kamau Bell at the 92 St. Y on February 12, 2019.</div></div></div><h2>A robust, diverse microbiome sets us up for healthy development </h2>Good nutrition is a growing problem in countries both rich and poor.While 22.2% of kids under 5 worldwide are stunted - meaning they <a href="https://www.who.int/nutrition/healthygrowthproj_stunted_videos/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aren't growing and developing</a> in a healthy way because of poor nutrition and infections - another 38 million children under 5 around the globe (5.6% of all kids) are overweight.Part of the reason kids are not developing as they should is that their microbiomes aren't robust. A person's microbiome is the complex mix of <a href="https://ep.bmj.com/content/102/5/257" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bacteria, viruses, and fungi</a> that live inside the gut; it's more than 2 million genes strong - more numerous than the human genome.Starting at birth, when a baby's sterile intestine is first exposed to a mother's microbes, 300 to 500 different bacterial species begin to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983973/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colonize this environment</a>. Normally, this colonization is helped along by a <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(19)30049-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mother's nutrient-rich breast milk,</a> as well as all the other things babies happen to put in their mouths.But if a baby's microbiome doesn't develop properly, it can have <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/wuso-gmi030818.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serious long-term consequences</a> for the way they process food, leading to stunted growth on one end of the spectrum or to obesity on the other. After babies are about a year old, their microbial colonies stabilize, which means the first months of life are the essential time to develop a rich microbiome. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">RIJASOLO/AFP/Getty ImagesSchoolchildren attend a class at Akileisoke Primary School, after lunch, offered by the World Food Programme's Under-nutrition Prevention Programme, in the Amboasary-South district of southern Madagascar, on December 14, 2018.</div></div></div><h2>Our microbiome determines how much nutrition we can get from the food we eat</h2>Take the case of Madagascar, where stunting (low height for a kid's age) is a problem for 53% of the country's children under 5. Because kids there are not getting enough of key nutrients like iron, Vitamin A, zinc, and iodine - which are critical to healthy development - they can't grow up to achieve their full potential."They don't develop physically, they don't develop mentally," Gates said.Similarly, in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13421" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bangladesh</a>, scientists have discovered that severely malnourished babies tend to have more "immature" microbiomes than other infants, suggesting that the first months of life are critical to how well nourished we can be throughout our lives. "Even if they're getting enough food, there's something about inflammation in their gut that their body isn't able to grow properly," Gates said. That has long-term impacts on the economy. The <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NUTRITION/Resources/281846-1271963823772/Madagascar.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Bank</a> estimates that Madagascar misses out on $720 million in GDP every year because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. On the other end of the spectrum, rich nations like Germany, Australia, and the US are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28982806" target="_blank" rel="noopener">missing out on billions because of poor nutrition</a> as well. One <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/10.1123/jpah.3.2.148" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> looked at the impacts of obesity in three US states - California, North Carolina, and Massachusetts - and estimated that those economies lose a total of $41 billion a year in indirect obesity costs like sick time, early death, and insurance payouts. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Monitor via Getty ImagesMothers feed their malnourished children a porridge made of rice, marrow, dried shrimp, carrots, oil and iodized salt during a nutrition class, on May 30, 2017 in Antsirabe, Madagascar.</div></div></div><h2>A microbiome treatment could help guts grow up strong</h2>Gates thinks one day, a probiotic powder, food, or other kind of microbial therapy could address these nutritional problems by introducing some missing bacteria into our guts. "We're actually trying to intervene with that, so that [children's] guts aren't complaining, so they're able to grow," Gates said. The Gates Foundation is hoping that scientists can soon come up with a cheap microbiome treatment that's far more complex than just eating a yogurt. New <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/landmark-study-to-address-global-malnutrition-and-restorative-effect-of-infant-probiotic-300630823.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">probiotic therapies</a> would include "a substantially larger number of difficult-to-grow commensal strains" of bacteria, the Gates Foundation said in its latest call for gut-therapy research.Teams that receive phase-one funding for these projects will get $100,000 from the Gates Foundation. If they're successful with that, researchers could get a second round of up to $1 million in cash to develop their new gut therapies. Already, the Gates Foundation has invested in a probiotic powder for babies called Evivo. Mothers mix the powder into breast milk to help babies repair and improve their gut microbiome. In theory, that could help malnourished babies boost their metabolism and develop a more robust immune system. <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/landmark-study-to-address-global-malnutrition-and-restorative-effect-of-infant-probiotic-300630823.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trials</a> of Evivo in severely malnourished kids under 6 months of age started in Bangladesh last year. Another Gates-funded project at the <a href="https://gordonlab.wustl.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington University School of Medicine</a> is feeding special "microbiota-directed foods" to undernourished kids in Bangladesh, too. Ideally, the <a href="https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/new-approaches-manufacturing-gut-microbial-biotherapeutics-round-22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gates Foundation says</a>, these fixes will one day be sold around the world for less than 10 cents per dose. That could create long-term diet solutions, both in poor places where the Gates Foundation works and in rich countries facing obesity epidemics. Gut bacteria play a role in obesity, too, since they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5960470/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">send signals to the brain</a> to tell us when we're <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27616451/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">full</a>. "Why is it that it's not easy to have some sort of broader approach that lets us control our appetite?" Gates said. "The microbiome looks like it will give us a solution there."Nutritionists are increasingly recognizing that there are no <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/keto-and-whole30-diets-myths-vs-reality-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hard-and-fast rules</a> that apply to everyone when it comes to diet, since each person's body (and microbiome) is different."We now know there is no diet or dietary intervention that is right for everyone, or even for an individual throughout their lifespan," a group of researchers wrote in a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)33170-2/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email#articleInformation">Lancet</a> article published in January.But Gates is convinced that if we can keep the microbes in our guts humming along happily, that'll be a good start. "Nutrition has always been a great mystery," Gates said. "A lot of myths - 'try this, try that.' But in this decade, I think that we can solve that." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-net-worth-spending-money-microsoft-billionaire-ceo-2019-1">Bill Gates has a net worth of over $96 billion - here's how he makes and spends his money</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

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