JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, we look at the serious global health threats posed by the seeing interaction between humans and bats.

Then how AM radio's shrinking reach is raising concerns about political discourse and public safety.

And a new documentary examines the life and legacy of one of rock and roll's founding fathers, Little Richard.

WOMAN: What I've done in the film is to actually present him as stardust, as someone who's like a supernova from another planet that just boom and all the stardust comes to the earth.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

For millions of Americans across the south and west, it is a very hot 4 July weekend.

The National Weather Service is warning of a dangerous combination of heat and humidity.

For weeks, Texas has been the nation's hotspot.

But now that wet blanket of heat and humidity is moving east in places like Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi, the high temperatures and high humidity made it feel like it was between 110 and 120 degrees.

On the streets of Nashville, tourists did not mince their words.

WOMAN: Hot.

Sorry.

MAN: Yeah.

WOMAN: Fucking hot.

MAN: Humid.

Yeah.

WOMAN: Very humid.

The humidity is what makes the difference because it just sticks to you.

JOHN YANG: Over Manhattan, it's been another day of haze and unhealthy air as smoke from Canada's wildfires linger.

Conditions were much the same in New England and Michigan.

Skies could clear tomorrow when rain is forecast to move in.

And among those dealing with all that heat and haze, a record number of Americans heading out of town for the holiday weekend.

AAA predicts more than 50 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home.

More than 43 million of them are projected to hit the highways, while another 4 million will fly.

Those numbers would set new records for 4 July travel.

French president Emmanuel Macron has canceled a state visit to Germany after the fourth night of riots across France.

Protesters set fires, turned vehicles over and looted businesses.

Police said they made more than 1,300 arrests overnight.

The protests were sparked by the police killing on Tuesday of a 17-year old boy of North African descent who's been identified only as Nahel.

The teen was buried today in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where he lived and where police shot him during a traffic stop.

And in Hollywood, the actors union SAG AFTRA has agreed to keep talking with the major movie and television studios past last night's expiration of their contract.

The union's agreement to extend the deal until July 12 averted, at least temporarily, a second Hollywood strike.

Screenwriters have been on strike since May.

Currently negotiations between the Writers Guild and producers.

More than 300 actors, including marquee names like Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Stiller sent their union leaders a letter pressing them to negotiate for what they call a transformative deal rather than compromising too soon.

SAG AFTRA members have already authorized the leaders to call a strike.

For both actors and writers, the shift to streaming has meant less work and less pay.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, why the decline of a.m. radio is raising and a new film looks at Little Richards legendary life and rock and roll legacy.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: The search for the exact origin of COVID-19 is highlighted the risks of viruses transmitted by certain species of bats.

To the wild they can withstand virus that kill another animals and the virus can incubate in bats and spread to other animals and humans.

As Ali Rogin explains, today, humans and bats are interacting more than ever.

ALI ROGIN: Global industrialization continues to reduce the amount of the world untouched by humans.

That means species like bats are no longer as insulated from human interaction as they once were.

In recent decades, bats have been traced as the source of outbreaks of rabies, Marburg virus, NEPA virus, and Ebola.

To discuss why this is happening, I'm joined by Neil Vora.

He's a physician with Conservation International, a nonprofit environmentalist group, and he works on pandemic prevention.

Neil, thank you so much for joining us.

Tell me about what you and your colleagues have found out about human and bat interaction in recent years, in recent decades.

DR. NEIL VORA, Conservation International: It starts off with understanding about emerging infectious diseases.

We know that infectious diseases are increasingly emerging around the world since at least the 1940s, and most of these new infectious diseases originate in animals, then jump into people.

That's called spillover.

And spillovers are increasing around the world because of what we humans are doing to nature and how we're interacting with animals around the world.

Bats are getting stressed as we are disrupting their habitats and affecting their food supply.

We are stressing out bats in a variety of different ways, and that makes them more prone to illness and makes them more likely to shed viruses that can then go on to infect people.

Just like when we're stressed, we're more likely to get sick.

The same goes for bats.

ALI ROGIN: And why are bats so unique in their ability to carry viruses that can affect humans?

NEIL VORA: There's a variety of reasons for this.

One might have to do with different immune systems that bats have compared to humans, which allows them tolerate some viruses differently than humans can.

Furthermore, bats are able to fly over large distances, and so that allows them to carry viruses from one area to another, similar to how humans, if we're infected with a virus and we jump in a plane, we can carry that virus to other parts of the world.

So these are some of the factors that might explain why bats are able to transmit a number of viruses to humans but not be affected by them the same way we are.

ALI ROGIN: Tell us now about the vital role that bats serve in the ecosystem.

NEIL VORA: It's very important that we don't leave this conversation with the feeling that bats are bad, that we should be killing bats.

And bats are absolutely critical for pollinating plants and for controlling insect populations.

So, we should actually be doing what we can to preserve bat habitat and keeping a safe distance from bats and allowing them to live their lives while we go on to live our own lives and try to minimize the disruptions to bat habitats.

ALI ROGIN: And what are your policy recommendations for mitigating these risks to bats?

NEIL VORA: Number one, to reduce these spillovers, we need to be addressing deforestation.

Deforestation and other changes in habitats may be the single biggest driver of these spillovers of viruses from animals such as bats into people.

Number two is wildlife trade.

Both legal and illegal needs to be regulated and monitored more closely.

We've had a number of outbreaks associated with wildlife trade, such as MPOCs back in 2003.

Also the original SARS outbreak back in 2003 was also associated with wildlife trade.

And very likely the COVID pandemic was also related to the wildlife trade.

Number three is that we have to improve how we raise farmed animals.

We have to be doing that in safer conditions so that we can minimize the risk of animals that we are raising, such as cows and pigs, from getting infected with wildlife viruses.

ALI ROGIN: You mentioned COVID-19, and as you know, the origin has not been definitively linked.

There are two prevailing theories.

One, that it is the result of natural spillover.

The other, that it is linked to a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the virus was originally detected.

And if we're talking about a multifaceted approach to mitigation, don't we also need to be looking at lab safety?

NEIL VORA: Absolutely.

We need to be looking at all the different places in which pathogens can arise and then start infecting people.

In the past century or past 105 years, we've had five other pandemics besides just COVID.

All five of those other pandemics, four food pandemics, and the fifth one I'm referring to is HIV.

All five of those were related to spillover events.

Now the 6th one that we just are emerging from COVID you're right, it's still up in the air as to the origins of the COVID pandemic, leading theories are that it's either spillover or a lab leak.

But most experts in the field actually are leaning towards the COVID pandemic, having started from a spillover event related to wet markets.

And so we have to be very clear about what the peer reviewed evidence shows.

But again, it's not conclusively been identified that COVID was started from a spillover event.

But I also want to make the point that even the very interesting to know how the COVID pandemic started, the bottom line is that we also know that we have to be taking actions to address spillover because the human actions for the environment and also improving laboratory safety.

ALI ROGIN: You mentioned the scientific consensus, so I just want to point out that the Biden administration maintains that both a natural and laboratory linked origin remain plausible hypothesis to explain the first human infection.

And both should be fully investigated.

And as we discussed, numerous viruses have been traced to newly deforested areas but Wuhan where the COVID-19 virus is not one of them.

So how do you explain that?

NEIL VORA: Well, I will explain that though the wildlife trading.

So, even though that area Wuhan might not have been recently deforested.

We also know that there are very (inaudible) wildlife markets within Wuhan and we might ever find out definitively what the cause of COVID was.

We still need to be taking actions to stop spillover and also be including laboratory safety and all of the above approach that's necessary.

ALI ROGIN: Certianly there is a lot that should be discussed with regard to the wildlife trade.

But as you know, the horseshoe bats that were being studied in the Wuhan China Institute of Virology originate 2,000 kilometers away from Wuhan in Yunan province.

So are you saying that these bats made it 2,000 kilometers without infecting anybody until they arrived in Wuhan?

NEIL VORA: Well, there might have been an intermediary animal in between.

So the virus might have originated from bats, jumped over into an intermediate animal and then jumped on into people.

And every time a virus passes from one species to the next, it actually can accumulate mutations that increase its pathogenicity, its virulence, meaning that the virus can become more infectious to people and more dangerous as well.

And so there's a lot of different possible pathways here.

But the bottom line is, again, that we know that there are certain high risk animals that pose public health threats.

So when they're sold in these markets, in urban settings, we have to be taking actions to improve the public health around that.

But I also want to be clear that we don't want to take away the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities from being able to access those wildlife species.

People certainly have a right to access them, but there's very little reason why wildlife needs to be sold in an urban market, because there's many other sources of protein that people in urban areas can be accessing.

ALI ROGIN: Neil Vora, a physician with Conservation International.

Thank you so much for joining us.

NEIL VORA: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: Just as television supplanted AM radio for drama, comedy and variety shows in the 1950s and FM radio became the medium of choice for music by the 1980s, streaming internet and podcasts have been challenging AM radio for listeners.

Now there's another threat.

Car makers are installing radios without the AM band as standard equipment on electric vehicles citing interference from electric motors on AM radios.

Critics say limiting AM radio's reach will have repercussions for politics and public safety.

Katie Thornton is a freelance journalist who researches all things radio and hosted the award winning podcast the Divided Dial.

Katie, what is left on AM radio these days?

KATIE THORNTON, Host, The Divided Dial: Yeah, as a lot of people might think of Am radio, there is a lot of talk and specifically a lot of conservative talk that's sort of, I think, what a lot of people know AM radio best for.

But what a lot of people might not know about AM radio is that it also is home to a lot of the country's sort of increasingly rare locally owned stations and it's home to a lot of non-English language broadcasts as well.

And so there's really a diversity of programming and a diversity of voices on AM that is sort of unmatched on the FM band.

JOHN YANG: There are some Republicans who say it's a plot against the conservative talk shows, but there are Democrats as well.

There's a bipartisan coalition in Congress who want to build to require AM radios in cars.

And one of the things they cite is public safety, the emergency services announcements on radio.

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, certainly public safety is a huge part of AM radio for a lot of folks who may not have reliable cell service, may not have reliable internet access.

AM radio is still a really crucial way of getting public safety information, getting weather information, getting traffic information.

But even in times that aren't emergencies, AM radio still does play a really crucial role for a lot of folks.

I mean, specifically in rural areas, the way that the technology works, it doesn't have very good audio quality, so it's not the best for music, but it can cover really long distances and it can penetrate buildings and mountains in a way that FM just can't.

So it serves a crucial role for public safety, but also for sort of civic engagement in rural areas in particular and also in urban areas there are a number of non-English language programs that are on AMA radio.

You know, AM radio stations serve a crucial need and really provide a fill a void for in terms of diversity in our media ecosystem in rural areas and in cities alike.

JOHN YANG: Do we know what listenership is for AM radio now and how it compares to previous years?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people talk about radio generally and AM radio in particular as being sort of a dying medium.

And I think that's a really big oversimplification.

A lot of people are still listening to the radio generally.

Over 80 percent of Americans listen every week.

And it's still about neck and neck with social media for how Americans get their news.

But within that 80 percent of Americans that are listening to the radio every week, only about 20 percent of those listeners are saying that they're listening specifically to AM.

So it's certainly a smaller audience.

And it is an audience that is aging, that is getting smaller, but it's still a really large portion of the American public and it still has a lot of importance and a lot of influence.

JOHN YANG: The rise of electric vehicles that only have FM bands that have no AM bands on them.

How big a threat is that?

KATIE THORNTON: Yeah, that's a really good question.

I think it's sort of hard to parse.

There's a lot of sort of uproar right now about the fact that a lot of automakers are taking these AM radios out of electric vehicles because of electric interference.

It's even noisier even buzzier than the AM band normally is because electric drivetrain components sort of operate at a similar wavelength to AM radios.

But I think that if you ask some folks in the AM radio world, they don't necessarily see that as an existential threat to AM radio.

A lot of the places where AM radio is most vital are not necessarily places where there's currently infrastructure for electric vehicles.

And I think really since the inception of broadcast, you know, popular broadcast radio, there have been sort of rumors of its death, rumors of the death of radio for almost 100 years now.

People said that commercials on the radio were going to kill radio.

People said FM would kill AM.

TV would kill AM.

The internet would.

These are still, you know, they give AM a run for their money.

But AM really holds its own.

It's still really influential.

And so while I don't think that electric vehicles are going to be the nail in the coffin of AM radio, it is certainly a hurdle.

And it's something that I think is getting a lot of people thinking about what the future might look like for those stations that find a home on the AM band and for the listeners who rely on it.

JOHN YANG: Writer Katie Thornton on AM radio.

Thank you very much.

KATIE THORNTON: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: A new documentary, "Little Richard: I am Everything" tells the story of one of rock and roll's founding stars.

It premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

That's where NewsHour co-anchor Amna Nawaz sat down with the director Lisa Cortes.

It's part of our arts and culture series Canvas.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Rollicking Innuendo filled Tootie Fruity first sent Little Richard rocking across American airwaves in 1955.

Born Richard Penneman, 23 years earlier in Macon, Georgia.

Little Richard became known for his explosive stage presence and a larger than life persona.

A new documentary, Little Richard: I am Everything by filmmaker Lisa Cortes, explores the impact of the iconic musician.

LISA CORTES, Director, "Little Richard: I Am Everything": What I've done in the film is to actually present him as stardust, as someone who's like a supernova from another planet that just poom, burst and all this stardust comes to the earth.

And that's like the essence of Richard and part of my thesis that we all have a little bit of his DNA in us.

AMNA NAWAZ: That DNA, she says, is most clear in our music.

One of rock and roll's founding fathers, Little Richard bridged the worlds of rhythm and blues, gospel and soul, with showmanship that was all his own.

TONY NEWMAN, Drummer: From the balcony, we hear I am an Adam mom, eyes wide open, and a cape and he jumps off the balcony, ran out to the stage.

And I was rocket (inaudible).

I wasn't of this earth anymore.

AMNA NAWAZ: His performance was rooted in both black and queer tradition.

Kicked out of his home as a teen for being gay, Little Richard found a safe space in a local speakeasy.

LISA CORTES: Then he begins to find his other family.

He finds his tribe.

He goes on the road and performs as a drag queen, Princess Lavone.

So, it's a really special way that he comes into the world.

AMNA NAWAZ: His energy and music went on to inspire generations of performers.

LISA CORTES: The Rolling Stones, who are a bar band that opened for him for 30 days in a row.

And as Mick Jagger so lovingly shared, he's like, I sat there on the side of the stage for 30 days and learned that I could own a stage and I could be performative because of Little Richard.

AMNA NAWAZ: A then little known band called The Beatles toured with him in 1962.

LISA CORTES: Little Richard is the king of shade and one of the best lines in the film is when he's talking about The Beatles and he says, ain't nobody know them but their mothers.

I mean, it's like, but wait a minute, there's a Beatles.

You know, every great artist brings something on their own.

But every great artist also samples a little bit from somebody who came before them.

AMNA NAWAZ: But many white artists simply copied his work wholesale, often with great success.

When you see the influence he had on, in particular white artists and white bands who went on to be much more successful, there's a voice in the film that says it goes beyond appropriation.

And it's more like obliteration.

LISA CORTES: The obliteration means a negation of what someone has contributed.

And it also means that by negating them, they don't have the opportunity to make money off of what they have been contributed.

AMNA NAWAZ: Little Richard thought that erasure.

Here he is speaking at the late Otis Redding's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

LITTLE RICHARD, American Musician: One of the greatest composers ever lived, that include me and everybody else, Jimi Hendrix and all of them that's been with me.

James Brown, the Beatles and Mick Jagger.

He was with me, too.

Mick, you remember that?

He said he know he was sleeping on the floor.

They didn't have no bed for him.

LISA CORTES: He's at a point in his life where he sees how so many others have benefited from what he started and how he's never received any recognition, never received a Grammy at that point in the film.

We have all gone on the journey with him.

We have seen where that cosmic dust of creativity has landed and influenced others.

But we've also seen the lack in many ways that it's given to Richard.

AMNA NAWAZ: His own internal tension between the church in which he was raised and the stage where he could be uninhibited is laid bare in the film.

LITTLE RICHARD: Thing in life now is to be a mess.

Whether you're homosexual, whatever walk a life a person may be, God loves them.

JASON KING, University of Southern California: He existed in contradiction.

He could be openly gay, in some ways, probably to her circles.

This happened for decades.

LISA CORTES: There's this pendulum, you know, between the sacred and the profane.

And there is a tremendous struggle for him to be someone who loves God as much as he does but to also question what that relationship can be as a queer person.

AMNA NAWAZ: What do you think his legacy is when it comes to the LGBTQ community today?

LISA CORTES: He had a lot of complexities about his queerness.

But what I do love is someone like a Billy Porter who in our film says regardless of all of that, his very being gave me permission as a gay black man to express myself completely.

He introduced into culture this sense of fluidity that so many artists then picked up on and have amplified.

AMNA NAWAZ: Cortes, who started her career as a hip hop music executive says that fluidity can be seen in today's stars like Lil Nas X, the Little Richard song she wishes she could have included.

LISA CORTES: Keep.

A Knocking, But I Can't Come In.

That's like Richard's story.

He's like -- he keeps trying to get in there.

He keeps trying to access it all, but he just couldn't get in there.

But at the same time, there's so much joy and liberation in the music that he gave to us.

AMNA NAWAZ: The film Little Richard: I Am everything is available to stream online now on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

For PBS News Weekend, I'm Amna Nawaz.

JOHN YANG: And that is PBS News Weekend for this Saturday.

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow.