This week on "Sunday Morning" (July 25)

Host: Jane Pauley

WATCH THE FULL JULY 25 EPISODE!

COVER STORY: Surviving locked-in syndrome: How one man confounded expectations of death | Watch Video
Rushed to a Massachusetts emergency room four years ago, 28-year-old Jacob Haendel exhibited signs of stroke. Doctors thought Haendel was in a vegetative state and would soon die, but the one-time chef was very much awake and conscious, suffering from locked-in syndrome – a purgatory between life and death. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with Haendel about his extraordinarily rare medical trauma, and about his remarkable recovery.

For more info:

• jhaendelrecovery.com
• Laboratory for NeuroImaging of Coma and Consciousness (NICC), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston

PARKS: Audiences return to Wolf Trap | Watch Video
The only national park devoted to the performing arts, Wolf Trap in Virginia is once again showcasing great performances surrounded by the great outdoors. Correspondent Conor Knighton reports on the park's past and present, just in time for their 50th anniversary season.

For more info:

• Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (National Park Service)
• Wolf Trap Foundation, Vienna, Va.

• christinegoerke.com

TOYS: How the Super Soaker's inventor made a big splash (Video)
When inventor Lonnie Johnson took a simple squirt gun and ramped it WAY up, he had no idea what a hit it would be. Since the early 1990s, the Super Soaker has soaked up more than $1 billion in toy sales. But Johnson hasn't stopped there. Correspondent Mo Rocca reports on how Johnson, a former engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, continues to make a big splash. Originally broadcast on May 21, 2017. 

ART: Artist Alice Neel, a collector of souls | Watch Video
While the art world was celebrating abstract expressionism and other avant-garde movements, American artist Alice Neel (1900-1984) captured humanity in her radical figurative paintings that revealed the complexity and dignity of her often-overlooked subjects. Correspondent Faith Salie visits an exhibit of Neel's work, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, that spotlights the artist's humanism. 

For more info:

• "Alice Neel: People Come First" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (through August 1, 2021)
• Exhibition catalogue: "Alice Neel: People Come First"
• aliceneel.com
• "Portrait of Alice Neel" by Michel Auder
• Exhibition: "Alice Neel" at the David Zwirner Gallery, New York City (September 9-October 16, 2021)

      
PASSAGE: In memoriam (Video)
"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week, including comedian Jackie Mason.      

RECREATION: New York's newest island, a man-made gift to the city | Watch Video
Replacing a derelict pier on the Hudson River, Little Island is a new public space and performance venue constructed on top of concrete pilings shaped like tulips. Correspondent Martha Teichner talks with billionaire Barry Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg, about their $260 million present to New York City.

For more info:

• Little Island @ Pier 55, New York City
• Little Island, Heatherwick Studio
• Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times
• Thanks to City Winery, New York

RECREATION: How Coney Island became the people's playground | Watch Video
Amusement park rides and sideshows, hot dogs, and mermaid parades: Coney Island, a tiny stretch of beachfront in Brooklyn, has left an indelible mark on the world's popular imagination for nearly 150 years. Correspondent David Pogue rides a rollercoaster of history in exploring the allure of the New York seaside resort.

GALLERY: Early photos of amusement parks

For more info:

• Coney Island USA – The Not-for-Profit Arts Center at Brooklyn's Beach
• Luna Park in Coney Island
• Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk (NYC Parks Dept.)
• "Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008," edited by Robin Jaffee Frank (Yale University Press), in Hardcover, available via Amazon and Indiebound
• Robin Jaffee Frank, The Cooper Union

HARTMAN: Chance meeting (Video)
Six-year-old Raelynn Nast, of Fort Smith, Ark., has always been proud of her father, Davey, and always wanted to introduce him to everybody. When Emily Beineman was jogging with her dog past a funeral home, Raelynn proudly asked her if she'd like to meet her dad, who was lying inside. Unsure, Beineman followed her gut, and followed Raelynn down the aisle. Correspondent Steve Hartman reports on how an act of kindness has bonded the two together.

SUNDAY PROFILE: Geena Davis on increasing opportunities for women on screen | Watch Video
Thirty years after the Oscar-winning actress starred in the transcendent tale of female friendship "Thelma & Louise," Geena Davis is still fighting to improve opportunities for women in the film industry. She talked with correspondent Tracy Smith about seeking change in front of, and behind, the camera; playing an athlete (and becoming one); and what she'd like her headstone to read.

For more info:

• Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (seejane.org)
• Bentonville Film Festival, Bentonville, Ark. (August 2-8)
• The documentary "This Changes Everything" is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix

       
TRAVEL: A sense of direction: Finding your way without GPS | Watch Video
Many creatures of the animal kingdom share a unique sense of navigation, but not all humans are so gifted. CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook (who describes himself as "direction-challenged") shares tips from experts about how better to steer ourselves through uncharted territory – and get back again.

For more info:

• Nora Newcombe, Temple University
  
• Robert "Rocky" Rockwell, American Museum of Natural History
• Footage from Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  

NATURE: Assateague Island (Extended Video)
"Sunday Morning" takes us among the wild horses of Assateague Island National Seashore off the Maryland and Virginia coast. Videographer: Michael Clark. 

For more info: 

• Assateague Island National Seashore

WEB EXCLUSIVE: 

GALLERY: Musicians are back on stage
After COVID shuttered live music events around the world in 2020, musical artists are now returning to festival and concert stages - and so are the fans.     

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

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