60 Minutes - 09/29/2024: After the Hurricane; Vladimir Kara-Murza; Welcome to the W; The Mezcaleros

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

As Hurricane Helene hits the Gulf Coast, Jeff and Ginny Rapkin are still rebuilding after Hurricane Ian ripped the roof off their home in 2022. Their insurance company valued the damage at only about $15,000 for repairs. Sharyn Alfonsi investigates what happened. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a fierce critic of Putin, survived two poisonings and was sentenced to the longest term ever given to a political prisoner in Russia. Hear his story with Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes. Jon Wertheim sits down with WNBA stars to talk about the league’s soaring TV ratings, player pay, and the buzz around this year’s standout rookies. And Caitlin Clark challenges Wertheim to take a shot. Mezcal has experienced more production growth than any other liquor in the last decade. Cecilia Vega visits Oaxaca, Mexico, to meet the families working to meet demand for this popular spirit, while preserving the environment and their culture. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Category 4 Hurricane Helene hit the west coast of Florida with a fury not seen since Hurricane Ian made landfall two years ago. Some 50,000 homeowners are still battling their insurance companies from that storm. And now there are allegations that they're being cheated. Faking the facts on a claim is not acceptable and there should be legal consequences for that. Vladimir Putin tried to poison him twice, then sent him to die in prison. Tonight, meet the man whose voice you were never meant to hear ever again. Will Putin try to kill you again? Look, we know what it entails to be in opposition to Vladimir Putin. He's not just a dictator, he's not just an

authoritarian leader, he's not just a strong. He's not just an authoritarian leader. He's not just a strong man. He is a murderer. That man is a murderer. There we go. Bang. You knew that when I left your hands. Yeah, it felt good.

Kaitlyn Clark may be the WNBA's Rookie of the Year. This is my off day. You guys are putting me through a workout. It's crazy. You're not lying. But the real breakthrough star this season is the league itself. Home and away, you look into the crowds. What are you seeing? People, which is what we want. I'm Leslie Stahl.

I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories and more tonight on this special 90-minute edition of 60 Minutes. The new Mitsubishi Outlander brings out another side of you. Your regular side listens to classical music.

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It was deadly. The full extent of the damage won't be known for weeks. And residents know rebuilding after the storm is likely to be as daunting as the storm itself. It's been two years since Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida, and an diligently paying premiums, homeowners are being misled by their insurance carriers. The whistleblowers, who are all licensed adjusters, tell us after Hurricane Ian, several insurance carriers were using altered damage reports to deceive customers. As Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida with 150 mile an hour winds, Jeff Rapkin took this video from the porch of his home about 40 miles south of Sarasota. All the trees are coming down. They don't normally look like this. Coming apart. My name is Jeff Rapkin. I live in Northport, Florida.

Rapkin, an adoption attorney, and his wife Ginny raised three children in this home and weathered more than a half dozen hurricanes inside it. But Ian, they say, was different. It just, it sat above our heads. It wouldn't move. I mean, it was a nightmare. And it went on for how long? 11 hours. 11 hours. It felt like the hurricane was inside the house. We couldn't keep the windows closed. That is the Rathkins' house. A neighbor just happened to be filming when their steel roof was ripped off. When the storm finally passed, the Rathkins could see clear skies through the new hole

Hurricane Ian punched in their ceiling. There were trees on and around their house. The roof was shredded and everything inside was soaked. The Rathkins lined up their losses on the curb and called their insurance company, Heritage, to begin the claims process. It sent a licensed adjuster to the house to assess the damage. Did you get the feeling, speaking to him and showing him around the property, that he understood what was happening here, that this was serious? He was really nice, he was thorough, and he said, the house is probably going to need to be completely rebuilt.

Which is why the Raffkens were floored when they finally got a check from their insurance company three months later. They sent us a report from the adjuster which said that it would cost $15,000 to put our home back to pre-hurricane conditions. They sent you $15,000? $15,000. And so the deductible was taken out, so it was $10,000. And then our public adjuster took $1,000 out, so we had nine. When you called and said, $9,000, are you kidding me? What was the reaction? The reaction was, this is the decision we've made. And I started to pray for Mr. Jordan Lee's untimely demise because I was so angry.

We found Mr. Jordan Lee very much alive. Do you remember the Rapkin family? Yes, ma'am. Lee is the adjuster who went to the Rapkins' home after the storm. What do you remember about them? Their property, a two-story home, metal roof that was blown off by Hurricane Ian, and the interior of the home was just it was soaked. Jordan Lee has been a licensed adjuster in Florida since 2017. After major disasters, most insurance

companies use third-party firms who hire adjusters like Lee to help them with the thousands of claims. Lee says after he assesses a home, he always leaves his cell phone number with the homeowners so they can call him if they have any questions. After Hurricane Ian, homeowners did. What were they saying? Cussing me out, left and right, up and down. You know, how could you do this to us? It was really bad, actually.

And out of the thousands of claims that I've handled, I've never had phone calls like that. Confused, he went back to compare the damage report he wrote for the Rapkins to the one the insurance company sent to them. That's your work? Correct. And this is what they were given? Totally different. Totally different. You said they needed a new roof? I did.

And this report says what? It reads as a repair. Was that roof able to be repaired, in your opinion? Not in my opinion, no. Later, Jordan Lee learned a desk adjuster, who'd never been to the Rapkins' home, had deleted entire sections of his report, but left his name and his license number on it, making it look like his work. Did anybody ever alert you, hey, we're making a change to this report?

No, nobody told me. The only way that I knew was the homeowner calling me. It is standard procedure for field adjusters to collaborate with those back in the office to make minor edits. But Jordan Lee says that is not what happened with the Rapkins report. Did you put a dollar amount on how much you thought they were owed? $231,368.57. What did the insurance carrier come up with?

$15,469.48. So quite a bit of difference. That's not a difference of opinion? No. Jordan Lee says as he dug further into his work from Hurricane Ian, he was stunned to discover the Rapkins weren't the only family whose report was altered. It was basically all of them. I mean, I handled 46 of them. 44 of them were changed. Were any of your reports changed to give the policy owner more money? No.

It was always down? It was always down. Down by as much as 98 percent. One estimate he wrote for $488,000 was changed to $13,000, another from $239,000 to $3,000. On December 13, 2022, My name is Jordan Lee. I'm an independent insurance adjuster and I work for the insurance companies. Jordan Lee and two other adjusters testified to Florida lawmakers about what one watchdog group called systematic criminal fraud by the insurance companies. The scheme was repeated over and over again, not only on my estimates,

but on estimates written by other adjusters. Ben Mandel has been a licensed adjuster since 2017. He did not work for Heritage, but says 18 of the 20 reports he wrote for another carrier after Hurricane Ian were altered. And he says he and other adjusters were instructed by some of their managers to leave damage off reports. There was a deliberate scheme to do this. And it wasn't just with one carrier doing this. This was six carriers that we discovered were doing this in the state of Florida.

They all got the memo. Which was? Which was, we're not going to replace roofs, asphalt shingle roofs. We're not going to replace them. We're going to repair them. Mandel says he refused to leave off roofs. They were asking me to do something that was illegal. And why was it

illegal? It's illegal because when I go out to make a damage estimate, I have to put what the damage is, not what they want the damage to be. And so if I leave something off that's supposed to be on there, I can be prosecuted for that. So the company is telling you, leave the roofs off. We're not paying for roofs, but you keep writing these roofs need to be replaced. I wrote the way they're supposed to be. And you get fired. And I got fired. Now, Ben Mandel and five other whistleblower adjusters are represented by attorney Stephen Bush.

Bush worked as a public adjuster for more than a decade. What the carriers are doing, in some instances, what they've said was if the policy holder needs a new roof, then we're gonna make them make us pay. In other words, file a lawsuit, and then we'll pay you for your roof. But unless they do that, they're not getting the roof paid for?

They're not getting it. They're not getting it. Most people will not stand up and fight. I cannot tell you how many people come to me and say, hey, what was I going to do? I had to replace my roof. And do you think the insurance companies know that? They're betting on that most people are just going to roll over? No question they know that.

They're playing the odds, and they're winning. Florida's insurance market has been a risky gamble for years. After a decade of costly storms, several national carriers exited Florida. Smaller regional carriers stepped in. But not all were up to the job. Since 2021, at least nine insurance companies in Florida have collapsed. And some of the remaining ones, Stephen Bush says, alter damage reports. And is it just in Florida? I now have evidence in six different states of where carriers are manipulating the estimates, changing them, and then misrepresenting to policyholders that it's the work product

of the field adjuster. And do most times the policy owner have any idea? The policy owner has no clue. There's almost no transparency in the claims process. Doug Quinn is the executive director of the American Policyholders Association, an advocacy group he started after his home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The victims of insurer fraud are the last people to find out that they were victims of insurer fraud. So when the insurance carriers say, look, it's our right, we're allowed to go back in there and do what we want to these adjuster reports, you would say...

You're not allowed to take somebody who has dutifully paid premiums for years and when they need their insurance, cheat them and shave 70%, 80% or 90% off their claim. You are not allowed to do that. You are allowed to disagree with, you know, the minutiae. But coming in to that degree and faking the facts on a claim is not acceptable, and there should be legal consequences for that.

If you really want to see change in the industry, put somebody in handcuffs. Attorney Stephen Bush says he turned over what he says is evidence of insurer fraud to state investigators, and Florida opened a criminal investigation. But two years after the storm, Florida's made no arrests. We know fraud's investigated all the time when it comes to homeowners, right? You know, if you put in a false... Contractors and public adjusters, everybody who's aligned with the consumer who costs the insurance industry money. Those cases get investigated and prosecuted rather quickly and aggressively. All we are asking is that cases that are alleged to be perpetrated by the insurance carriers or the vendors that they hire are just as aggressively investigated and prosecuted when fraud is found.

Quinn says it's difficult to know how many policyholders may have been given less money than they were owed. But two years after the storm, every unrepaired home and tarp tells a story. At the Rathkins, mold and Mother Nature are gnawing away at what's left of their home. And upstairs... Oh, well, there's the sky. This isn't a hole. This is a crack down the middle of your house. I can put my whole arm up through here. That split roof is an open wound for the Rapkins, who still have to mow the lawn and make mortgage payments on their rotting home every month.

They're also paying rent on an apartment nearby and $4,000 a year to Heritage for home insurance. And you're still paying? I'm still paying. Oh, yeah. The premiums went up. So we're still paying, and the premiums went up. And I're still paying and the premiums went up. And I can't get another insurance company, obviously.

Jeff and Ginny Rapkin filed a lawsuit against Heritage, accusing it of breach of contract and fraud. In a statement to 60 Minutes, Heritage said it couldn't comment on specific policyholders, but aims to pay every eligible claim and had no intention to deceive. The company says in its own random sample, about 42 percent of damage reports were revised downward and 26 percent were revised upward. Heritage says that since Hurricane Ian, it has made many reforms, including updating its claims processing software, which it blames for not including the names of desk adjusters who altered reports.

Do you think that was a mistake, just an innocent mistake? Originally, I did. I said, oh, maybe they made an error. And what do you think now? I think they did it on purpose. And I think people are getting letters that say they're not covered when they are. This is a con. That's what this is.

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Putin poisoned Karamurza twice, then sent him to die in prison. But last month, he was traded for a prize that Putin could could not resist why does the russian dictator still fear vladimir karamurza here's why i think russia deserves so much better than to live under a corrupt repressive criminal archaic kgb- dictatorship. And change is not going to happen unless we do something to make it happen. And this is worth your life? I mean, look, there were people who stood up to apartheid in South Africa. There were people who stood up to the communist regime in the Soviet Union. There were people who stood up to the Nazi regime in Germany.

There are causes larger than ourselves. And to me, the cause of a free, peaceful, civilized, and democratic Russia is certainly much larger than I could ever be. He has fought for that cause from the start of Putin's 25 years in power. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and Cambridge educated historian. Last year, 43-year-old Kara Mirza was tried for treason after denouncing Putin's war on Ukraine. We try to warn the world. We try to shout. We try to get the message out that this regime is dangerous, that this man is dangerous, that even if you don't care about what happens to us in Russia, it's going to come to you sooner or later. What is it like living in Russia today?

Anybody who is a genuine opponent of Putin is either in exile, in prison, or dead. You have to think about even what you talk to your kids about at home, because children whose families are against this war in Ukraine would, for example, draw anti-war images in school, and their parents would get visits from the police, or they would be put in prison. You have to think about that as well if you live in Russia today. Vladimir Karamurza has been high on Putin's list since 2012, when he and the late Senator John McCain fought for the so-called Magnitsky Act. The U.S. law is named for a man murdered by Putin's police. The Magnitsky Act seized the overseas assets of more than 60 people who abused human rights in Russia.

Karamurza says this is why he was poisoned by Kremlin assassins. I was in a coma for about a month the first time this happened in May of 2015, with a multiple organ failure. And as the doctors in Moscow were telling my wife, with about a 5% chance to survive. And after I came out of that coma, despite all the odds, I've literally had to learn everything anew. You had to learn to walk again. You had to learn to eat again.

It's amazing how fast the human body just loses everything, just loses all the strength, and you just have to start anew. Two years later, he was poisoned again. This time, 2017, he rehabbed in the U.S. His wife and three children live in the States, and Kara Mirza has permanent resident status, but once he recovered, he returned to Russia. You were safe. How could I not go back to Russia? I'm a Russian politician. A politician has to be in their own country. How could I call on my fellow citizens, on my fellow Russians, to stand up and oppose this dictatorship if I myself was too scared to do it?

How is that possible? Last year, after his treason conviction, he was hit with the longest sentence ever for a political prisoner. The judge in the case had been among the first officials ever sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act. And when you heard the sentence, 25 years, you thought what? So frankly, I thought, it's a job well done. Job well done? On my part, yes.

I think that 25-year sentence was frankly a recognition that what we did over all those years mattered, that the Magnitsky Act mattered, that public opposition to the war in Ukraine mattered. He was sent to Siberia and solitary confinement. In the two and a half years I've spent in Russian prison, I was only able to once call my wife on the phone, and only twice I was able to speak on the phone to our three kids. It was a 15-minute call, so five minutes per child, and as my wife later told me, she was standing there with a stopwatch to make sure that each of our kids doesn't get more than five minutes so that everybody could have an opportunity to speak with that. Were you sitting in that cell thinking, I'm going to get out of here one day? No, to answer your question honestly, I did not believe

I would ever get out. And so what happened on August 1st, the only way I can describe that is a miracle. The miracle was in the making for more than a year. Negotiations began over Americans held by Putin, which eventually included Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. But over the months, the deal grew to involve seven countries. We don't trust the Russians on anything. They lied about the war in Ukraine. They make a regular practice of lying and obfuscating.

But one thing they have shown over time is when they say they're going to do an exchange, they do the exchange. At the center of the negotiations was Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security advisor. None of this happens overnight. None of it's straightforward. There's going to be twists and turns. There's going to be false starts. And so persistence, relentlessness, that's part of the name of the game of actually securing the release of these Americans. But there was only one thing Putin wanted, and that would be hard, maybe impossible, for the man who held the key, the leader of Germany. Olaf Scholz was absolutely critical. Without him, this would not have happened, because a central piece of the puzzle was the release of a Russian agent named

Vadim Krasikov. Without Krasikov, there is no deal. But Krasikov is a notorious assassin and friend of Putin. In 2019, he was sent to Germany to kill an enemy of the Kremlin. The daytime murder in the middle of Berlin was infamous. What was Schulz's dilemma? Being able to look his people in the eye and say, we are releasing someone who has committed a grievous crime on German soil, and therefore, I can deliver something for the people of Germany. And that's why we ended up thinking through enlarging the problem, not just trying to bring out Americans, but of course, bring out some German citizens as well. And then the critical move of being able to say to the German people, the American people

in the world, we are also getting Russian freedom fighters out, including people like Vladimir Karamurza. That was the fireside pitch to the German leader. But Krasikov had served only three years of a life sentence. Schultz's fractious coalition government faced election challenges, and the easy answer was no. In the end, you had to do a deal with the devil. I made a deal with the Russian president. In Berlin, Chancellor Scholz told us he was brought to yes by a man he considered a friend. It is not an easy decision. And I discussed with many people in my government, and especially with Joe Biden, who asked me to help.

And my view was that this is something which we could do, well prepared, and if we do it on a large scale. He said, and I remember it very vividly, on the phone with President Biden, for you, Joe, I will do this. A large group of officers burst into my cell. I have no idea what's happening. It's the middle of the night, it's dark.

And they tell me I have 10 minutes to get up and get ready. And at this moment, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be let out and be executed. But instead of executed, on August 1st, eight Russian criminals and spies were traded for several Germans, the three Americans, and eight Russian dissidents. As he stepped off the plane in Turkey, Kara Merza's captors had parting advice. He turned to me and said, be careful about what you eat. You know how these things happen. He was telling you you might be poisoned again, even though you're free.

Well, look, we know that attacks on opponents of the Kremlin have happened far beyond the borders of Russia. The next voice Kara Mirza heard spoke not of fear, but of freedom. At that moment, a lady diplomat came up to me with a cell phone, and she says, are you Mr. Kara Merza? I said, yes. And she gives me the phone and says, I'm from the American Embassy in Ankara. The president of the United States is on the line. You've been wrongfully detained for a long time, and we're glad you're home. With President Biden was Kara Merz's family.

We're in the Oval Office. You've done a wonderful thing by saving so many people. I think there are 16 of us on the plate. I don't think there are many things more important than saving human lives. It felt surreal. It felt more emotional than I had ever felt at any point in my life. There had been many emotions for Jake Sullivan, who for years could tell desperate families only to keep waiting. And most of the time, as you can imagine, those are tough conversations. But not today. Today, excuse me,

today was a very good day. You know, it's one thing to speak about protecting freedom or protecting human rights, but it's quite another thing to actually do something to protect them. And whatever else President Biden and Chancellor Scholz will be remembered for years from now, they will be remembered for years from now. They will be remembered for this. Vladimir Karamurza told us he quoted a Jewish scripture to you. He who saves one life saves the entire world.

It was very nice to hear it, to be very honest with you. On the other hand, I don't feel that great. I did what I thought is the right thing to do. We have traveled quite a bit through Ukraine. We have seen the destroyed hospitals. We have seen the shattered schools.

We have seen the mass graves. Vladimir Putin has attacked a country that meant him no harm. And I wonder if you can explain why. Because that is what dictators do. Once they consolidate their control domestically, once they eliminate and destroy all the opposition at home, they start moving against others. This has always happened in Russia, whether under the Tsars, under the Soviets, or now under Vladimir Putin. Will Putin try to kill you again? Look, we know what it entails to be in opposition to Vladimir Putin.

He's not just a dictator. He's not just an authoritarian leader. He's not just a strongman. He is a murderer. That man is a murderer. Vladimir Karamurza remains in the U.S. with his family. He told us in solitary confinement he learned there's no life without hope. True for those behind bars and for his imprisoned country.

The amazing fact and the fact that frankly makes me proud of Russia is that there are thousands of people in Russia who have publicly spoken out against Putin's regime, who have publicly spoken out against the war in Ukraine, even at the cost of personal freedom. And I hope that when people in the West, when people in the United States, when people in the free world at large think about Russia. They will remember not only the aggressors and the war criminals who are sitting in the Kremlin, but also those who are standing up to them, because we are Russians too. Meet Tim's new Oreo Mocha ice caps

with Oreo in every sip. Perfect for listening to the A-side, or B-side, or bull-side. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. In June of 1984, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson met in the NBA Finals for the first time. The following week, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley were drafted, and the league would never be the same. Forty years later, the WNBA arrives at a similar hinge point. A rookie class as good as advertised has made a seamless transition from college to

the pros, blending with established stars. Sports have a knack for bending stats to fit desired narratives, but the W's growth figures astound. TV ratings have spiked 153% from last season, and that's before the playoffs, which began last week. Gradually, then suddenly, this 27-year-old league has become a prominent player in the modern sportscape. Never mind her slick drives in traffic. The Deade eye passes. That's an absolute dime. The three-pointers like this.

Finds Clark from the logo. Yeah! Hello. Hey, how are you, John? Caitlin, nice to meet you. Good to see you. A few weeks ago in Indianapolis, we asked Caitlin Clark... Ask me the hard-hitting questions.

...to pinpoint the signature moment of this signature season, and, well, we didn't see this coming, but neither did she. I remember we were in New York, and John Paul Jones set a good screen on me, and I actually popped my eardrum, I'm sure my eardrum, just on a screen. Your eardrum? Yeah, it was actually, it was a really good screen on me and I actually popped my eardrum, ruptured my eardrum just on a screen. Your eardrum? Yeah, it was actually, it was a really good screen by JJ. She's a tremendous player, but I think that just kind of

speaks to the physicality of the league. It's just that she kind of got me in the right spot. You smiled when you told that story. Good, clean basketball play. It's a good story. I think it's something that I always remember, like coming into this league. Triple doubles, those are all well and good,

but it's the eardrum rupture. That's probably more memorable, honestly. Then again, maybe it's fitting. As this is the season the WNBA lowered its shoulder, made its presence felt, and expanded its reach. These fans came to central Indiana from Newfoundland, Canada? And you're here why?

Just to see the Beaver game with Kaitlin Clark. Clark, 22 in number and in age, just led the Fever to the playoffs. She's unquestionably the league's main attraction. But not the only one. Another rookie, Angel Reese, made her mark too. She is the best offensive rebounder in the league. But the real breakthrough star of this WNBA season is the W itself. Building off a college season in which, unimaginable just a few years ago,

the women's championship game outdrew the men's, W games can draw more eyeballs than NBA games do. League-wide attendance is up 48%. In Minnesota, Nafisa Collier is this season's Defensive Player of the Year. Target practice! She just dropped 80 points in the first two playoff games. Collier was drafted in 2019 and bridges two eras of the WNBA. We asked her about the difference this year.

Home and away, you look into the crowds. What are you seeing? People, which is what we want. It makes the game so, so fun. It's like you're six man when you're at home. And then when you're away, you just can't wait to silence the crowd. And that's like the best feeling ever. You figured out a way to benefit from a full crowd, even when it's rooting against you. Yeah, it's almost more fun when you're like in a packed arena with the other team and you hit like a big three or a big block or something and you hear them all go, oh, that's, I love that feeling. Oh, you're defending on Jones. That's every bit as motivating.

It really is. Silence in crowds, not an issue when the WNBA debuted in 1997. Eight teams paired with eight existing NBA teams. From the jump, franchises came and went. The Houston Comets won the first four titles, only to fold. But amid the instability, the WNBA was giving a generation of girls aspiration and inspiration. When Clark was growing up in Iowa, already running circles around the boys, her dad took her to see a WNBA game in Minnesota. She returned home hell-bent on adding distance to her jump shot. I'm like begging my dad to like tear up some grass and pour more concrete so I could have an entire three-point line in my driveway.

Did that really happen? You extended your range by dumping more concrete? Yeah, because it was like kind of slanted. Our driveway was like slanted, so I only had a three-point line on one side of the driveway. So I told my dad he had to tear up all this grass, and he did. Likewise, her fever teammate, 6'5", center Leah Boston, last season's Rookie of the Year, had grand ambitions. So when I first picked up a basketball, at first I was like, I want to go to college, and that was really my goal. Until probably about sophomore year, I was like, yeah, everything I do is for the number one pick. I love that. So making the WNBA, that became like a secondary goal at some point. You wanted to be the number one pick. I wanted to be the number one pick. She was. Then this spring came Clark,

Reese, Cameron Brink, and the 2024 vintage. Did you have the level of confidence that this draft class seems to? I don't think anybody has the level of confidence this draft class does. I think that's what's so amazing about them, actually, is they don't act like rookies. It feels like nothing gets them down, and I think that's amazing. A lot of imposter syndrome going on. Not a lot, no. New confidence, old-school hoops.

This is the league of choice for the basketball purist. All passing and precision. Stewart to Jones. Vandersloot. Had some time. Obviously, the men are really fun. They're very athletic. They can dunk and all those things.

But if you're a true fan of basketball, I think that ours is really interesting because we play it the right way. We play it really smart. Our season is shorter also, so we go a lot harder way. We play it really smart. Our season is shorter also, so we go a lot harder, I think, in our games. 12 teams of 12 players, 144 of the world's best. Asia Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, the league's reigning champs, is a three-time MVP, including this season. Her game equal parts grace and power. Oh, the footwork. That's pretty. And there's the OG, Diana Taurasi, still doing this in her early 40s. A lot of these players are who I grew up watching on TV and wanting to be like,

and now I get to play against them. Now they're guarding you on the perimeter. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Clark herself already has a trademark shot, a jumper from just inside midcourt. The Logo 3. Are you guys gonna make me shoot in these nice clothes? We got confidence in you. That's crazy, I'm not even warmed up either. I only shoot from back there in games

if I've like made a couple, then you get a free pass to like launch a long three. So that's a free pass with the coach or that's a free pass with yourself with your basketball values? Both. What would you say your range is? I don't know sometimes I feel like I'm closer than I than I am like I don't feel that far back especially in a game I don't know I kind of just lose sight of where I actually am which is probably a good thing. But you know you're like one dribble past midcourt sometimes. Yeah, a couple dribbles past midcourt. Part of her process, gauging the distance.

This isn't like shooting a free throw. Logos vary court to court. I would always want to see how big the logo is, because some people have bigger logos at center court, some have smaller ones, so if it's pretty big, I can usually get there. I can probably get it here from here. But but I'm not do you want me to try okay but you have to try second all right let's see

all right this is my off day you guys are putting me through a workout it's crazy it's crazy I didn't know I was signing up for this. There we go. The bottom of the net success has changed the W's bounce sheets. Corporate sponsors have arrived. Everybody, everybody, everybody is wearing skims. So have the celebrities. The league recently signed a media rights deal that will pay $200 million a season,

more than a threefold increase. Kathy Engelbert is WNBA commissioner. The Caitlin Clark phenomenon. How do you describe it? She's clearly an unbelievable player, came in with an unbelievable following, has brought a lot of new fans to the league. If you look at our historic season around our attendance, our viewership, Kaitlyn, Angel 2, Angel Reese, Rekia Jackson, Cameron Brink, this class of rookies, we will be talking about them a generation from now.

I notice when you're asking about Kaitlyn a lot, you bring up other rookies as well. No league's ever about one player. That player could get hurt or whatever. So I think it's just to give recognition that in sports, people watch for compelling content and rivalries, and you can't do that alone as one person. Though the commissioner touts league rivalries, competition has also brought out a certain ugliness. This season saw an onslaught of vitriol, often racist, targeting players.

This in a league that is 75% Black. There's no place for that in our sport. Here's veteran star Breonna Stewart, earlier this month, welcoming new fans but demanding they act respectfully. A happier earmark of growth? The WNBA announced plans to expand from 12 teams to 16. And for the first time this season, players travel on charter flights. I mean, that's amazing. I miss my points a little bit. It's okay.

Oh, your miles. Your air miles. I miss my little points. No Delta miles up here. No Delta miles, but it's okay. I think this is great, too, especially for recovery. You're able to get back on that plane, get right back home after a game. The women that came before us, it's like, this is because of you guys. Like, you guys worked all this, and now here we are. We're able to step into that, and it's a blessing for us. Nafisa Collier recalls the old days on the road, staying two to a room.

We used to have to stay in, like, the team-accredited hotels, and now we can stay wherever. So a lot more five-star hotels was just nice. Five-star hotels. Yeah. You're flying private. I know. We're living the life. Life's good. You're living the life.

We're like professional athletes or something. Look at my shoes, look at my shoes. The surge in success this season is about more than the basketball. The arrival walk to the locker room is now a fixture in pro sports. W players absolutely own this space. Social media rocket fuel that engages fans. Players love it, Caitlin Clark included. Consistent with the life cycle of other successful pro sports leagues,

the players are done taking one for the team. They now want to get paid. Note the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations between the league and the players. A rookie salary for the 42-game season, $76,000. Base salary for the MVP, $200,000. Yet the median NBA player salary this season, roughly $12 million. You talk about this growth and these ratings numbers. What's a fair salary?

I mean, someone like me, I love multiple commas just because, like, we deserve it. We come in here night in, night out. We work hard. You see the viewership numbers up. You see everything up. I mean, I'm all for it because I love a comma. Like a comma in that salary. As a union leader, Nafisa Collier will be at the bargaining table.

The NBA shares revenues with its players roughly 50-50, and she wonders, is the W willing to do the same? As for Kamas... Of course that would be obviously amazing. I don't know how realistic. That is obviously the goal, and I hope that we can get there. How much should we compare NBA and WNBA? We're not asking for the same salaries as the NBA.

What we're looking for is rev shares. They're making that because of rev shares. And so that's what we're wanting. And that's how we close that gap. How we're sharing that pie. Yeah, how we're sharing it. Meantime, building on this watershed season, the women of the WNBA will keep shooting their shot.

There we go. Bang. You knew that when I left your hands. I know when I'm gonna miss, I know when I'm gonna make it. The worst is when it feels good and you still miss. But you know as soon as it leaves your fingertips. It feels good, yeah. So like if I miss it and it feels good, like, that's fine.

You're okay with that? You feel good about your shot, yeah. With that as encouragement from this season's Rookie of the Year, we finally gave in. I think you have to go now. Come on. Let's see if you can get it there. Two more. Two more. You know what? I have no legs. No, I feel confident. Let's see. I'm wearing this jacket.

Oh. Ugh. Terrible. That's not bad. Get it there. Oh my God. You gotta jump. Tight rims. I'm telling you. No. I think that might just be you, honestly. Once again this fall, we are bringing you expanded editions of 60 Minutes that will run 90 minutes.

Tonight, Cecilia Vega takes us to Oaxaca, Mexico, where tourists are pouring into the countryside for mezcal, the agave spirit made by hand. Artisanal mezcal resists machinery. The agave is roasted in underground pits for days, then it's crushed by horse-drawn mill. The mash is fermented in wooden barrels and distilled twice in copper vats. No temperature dials or controls. Bubbles indicate the alcohol content. I'm John Wertheim. We'll be right back with the Mescaleros. For years, Mescal sat in the shadow of its popular cousin tequila,

known for its worm and deemed too smoky for a spot on the same shelf as premium spirits. But not anymore. Once banned and later sold in plastic jugs for pennies, the handcrafted spirit has found its way into cocktail bars and Michelin-starred restaurants. No other liquor has seen a greater increase in production in the past decade. Mezcal gets its name from the Aztec word for cooked agave, a thorny plant sacred to Mexico for thousands of years. The vast majority of mezcal is made in the southern state of Oaxaca, where family-owned distilleries dot the landscape. We went to meet the mezcaleros as they labored to quench the world's thirst for mezcal.

Mezcaleros harvest agave year-round, but it's no low-hanging fruit. Pried from the earth, the spikes are removed by machete, revealing the heart, the piña, which looks like a hundred-pound pineapple. Agave takes its sweet time to ripen up to 30 years for some varieties. It grows in the valleys that run between the Sierra Madre Mountains, here in Oaxaca. The crossroads of indigenous and Spanish colonial cultures, the birthplace of mezcal. And Santiago Matatlan is its cradle. The Hernandez brothers, Armando and Álvaro, are fourth-generation mezcaleros from an indigenous Zapotec family.

They learned the craft from their father, Silverio. Today they run Mal de Amor, one of Matatlan's largest distilleries, or palenques. We make mezcal without hurry, meaning everything in its time. We don't add or do anything to speed up production, but we make it non-stop, 365 days a year, the entire day. Is it different from the way your father made it? No, it's the same. We conserve all the traditions, everything we were taught,

and everything is done by hand. Agave was first distilled here in the 1600s. Mexicans have been drinking mezcal at baptisms, funerals, and every occasion in between ever since. And let's clear this up early. Tequila is a type of mezcal, made with blue agave, mostly in the state of Jalisco. But most tequila has been mass-produced, made by machines since the 70s. Artisanal mezcal resists machinery.

The agave is roasted in underground pits for days, then it's crushed by horse-drawn mill. The mash is fermented in wooden barrels and distilled twice in copper vats. No temperature dials or controls. Bubbles indicate the alcohol content. Who knows more about the process? I think he may know more,

but I drink it more. At Mal de Amor, they offer Napa-style tours of their agave fields. Mezcal is now a half-billion-dollar-a-year industry. But in the 1980s and 90s, Armando and Álvaro told us production of mezcal could barely support the family. The price of mezcal was very low. It was miserable.

What was it? Seven pesos for a liter of mezcal. Less than a dollar. And we were 10 children. Sunday was the only day we could afford a cup of milk and a piece of bread. So we decided to go. Armando left Mexico first, alone, bound for California. Do you remember the day you left?

Yes. It was the 3rd of December, 1992. I was 12 years old. I have children of my own now, and I could never bring myself to let them cross the border alone. It was a sad goodbye. Very painful to leave the family behind. How did you get there? Like all migrants, with a coyote smuggled across the border. Álvaro eventually joined him in Los Angeles. They spent a decade working in bars and restaurants when the plot twisted. Artisanal became hip and mezcal's popularity boomed.

Álvaro began to dream about returning to the family business. I had plans drawn up for the palenque, and I showed Armando. Álvaro came in with the plan for his palenque, and he spread it on the bed and said, I'm going to do this. And I told him, you're crazy. How are you going to make a living? Armando was skeptical, until he noticed shots of mezcal going for $10 each. He says he looked down at the label on a bottle one day, and it was from their hometown. And you finally told your brother, I told you so. So Armando and Alvaro went back home to ramp up the family palenque. Enter John Rexer and Gilberto Márquez of the mezcal brand Ilegal, made from 100% espadín, a variety of agave that ripens the fastest.

So how far out does the Ilegal agave go? I mean, is this all Ilegal? Yeah. There's about 2,500 plants per acre. There's about five acres out here. That's a lot of espadrille, right? Today, ilegal is one of the top-selling mezcal brands. But it, too, started humbly. Rexer, an expat New Yorker, was in search of a steady supply of mezcal to serve at a bar he owned in Guatemala.

I would take a bus up from Guatemala. It's a 24-hour bus ride. Along the way, you can pull a string in that bus and say, I want to stop here. Walk to a village, wait until lights came on somewhere and say, hey, do you know anybody who makes good mezcal around here? And invariably, someone would have an uncle, a brother, a cousin. Tengo un tío. Tengo un tío. Sí, that's exactly it. Everybody has an uncle, a brother, a cousin. Tengo un tío. Tengo un tío, sí. That's exactly it. Everybody has an uncle. As the name on the bottle suggests, Rexer's operation wasn't exactly legal. Is it true that you once dressed like a priest to have to get this across a border?

Listen, I went through 12 years of Catholic school. Me too. I knew how to play the role. It was his friend, Gilberto Marquez, who introduced him to the Hernandez brothers. And we rolled down here, and it was very, very, very tiny, and they were making very small amounts. And he asks me, do you have more of this mezcal? And we said, yes. We have 10,000 liters, and it took us like two years to make. And John says to us, I want it all. A sidebar, and this may go without saying, but Rexer has swigged his fair share of mezcal.

Excuse me. Do you want a water? Yeah, no, take a break, you're good. He's like, do I want a water? You know, there's an expression, the best mezcal is the one in front of you. It's not entirely true. You don't want to cover it in smoke. You want to taste the agave. A lot of people say they don't like mezcal because of the smoke.

Obviously, you're in a smoky environment. When you dig up the pit oven, there's smoke everywhere. So there's a lot of early mezcals that came into the States that are heavy smoked. Has mezcal gotten a bad rap on that front? I think in the early days it did, but people began to discover, no, the agaves have particular unique flavors. Rexer asked brothers Armando and Alvaro to go into business, and he made a promise. If they could produce the mezcal, he'd sell it around the world. They'd been burned by false promises before, so they weighed his offer in their native language. You spoke in Zapotec so he wouldn't understand?

I said to Alvaro, in Zapotec, do you believe him? And he said, I don't know. But we figured, let's see. I said, listen, I'll pay you up front so that we can get started. Two days later, we had the deposit in our account for all 10,000 liters. He said, each month, I'll keep making deposits. So we made more, 500 liters, 1,000, 2,000, and it grew like that.

Now their partnership produces 3,000 bottles of mezcal a day, almost all of them for export. And every bottle is certified by the Mexican government, stamped with a hologram to mark denomination of origin, like champagne or cognac. We'd heard there are rules about how to drink this artisanal mezcal. The good stuff isn't for shots or diluting in cocktails. It's for sipping.

So we asked Marquez, the former bartender who now promotes Illegal. Favorite way to drink it? Spicy margarita. Oh, wait a second. I thought you weren't supposed to drink mezcal in a margarita. You do want to enjoy mezcal neat, but there's nothing wrong with having it in a cocktail, especially if we're trying to get folks to try it for the first time.

It's an introduction to mezcal. Marques poured us a joven, the colorless mezcal you'll find in most bottles. This is 100% espadín. So joven means young. Joven means young, unaged. Salud. This one tastes spicy to me. So smoke is not the first thing that you taste?

It's definitely there, but I would not call this smoky. Yes. Aging mezcal is a Mexican tradition. Ilegal does it in American oak, the same way bourbon is made. So this is the añejo, and this is aged 15 months. Color's definitely darker. Yep. Wowors definitely darker. Yep. Wow, so good. How would you drink this one?

Absolutely neat, 100%. Has anyone ever said to you, hey, what's a gringo like you doing? In a place like this? Selling Oaxaca, Oaxacan mezcal? Yes, I've gotten pushback over the years, you're a foreigner, But I'm someone who fell in love with the rhythm and the pace of Oaxaca and fell in love with Moscow. He's no

longer the only foreigner in this partnership. Bacardi, the largest privately held global spirits company, acquired Ilegal last year in a deal worth a reported $100 million. When we started to grow the brand, one of the questions I asked myself was, how do you fall in love with something and then not destroy the thing you fell in love with by making it grow? Can you do that with an international conglomerate like Bacardi? I think it's a great question because it's not just the beautiful liquor, but it's certain things that we're trying to preserve and believe in. This is a family business. We have to respect the artisanal production. We can never let this become industrial.

What does the deal with Bacardi mean for you? What's going to change is many people's lives in this community. It's a benefit for the whole community. The Palenque now employs 100 people from Matatlan and beyond, including their 87-year-old father, the Mescalero Emeritus. Armando and Álvaro translated from Zapotec to Spanish. We asked what Señor Hernández thought of his son's mezcal. Does it live up to the family name? That's why I drink it.

If not, I wouldn't drink it. The Hernandez brothers are expanding the family palenque. Construction is already underway. So if there's the American dream, is this the Mexican dream? It's the Mexican dream. It's something we never imagined. When we come back, how mezcal tourism in Oaxaca is helping to fuel the economy,

even as some producers fear it's all moving a bit too fast. O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' O' agriculture, and tourism have been revitalized by the explosion in global demand for mezcal. Tens of thousands of Oaxacan families produce mezcal for a living, mostly in small, handcrafted batches. The deeper you travel into Oaxaca's countryside, the harder mezcaleros cling to their ancestral methods, and the louder they'll tell you there's a price to pay for this mezcal boom. Insulated by peaks and valleys, Oaxaca has its rugged terrain to thank for its diversity. The Zapotec people flourished here for nearly a thousand years, their ancestral capital preserved at Monte Alban, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Oaxaca is home to 16 different indigenous groups, more than anywhere else in the country. The state capital, Oaxaca City, is a technicolor hub of markets and vendors,

with its 16th century cathedral, Santo Domingo de Guzman, towering over the stone streets. On the coast, Puerto Escondido, the hidden port, draws surfers from around the world who come to ride a massive break in the Pacific called the Mexican Pipeline. Then there's the food. Oaxaca is called the land of seven moles after its rich stew made with dozens of ingredients. To wash it all down, hundreds of varieties of small-batch mezcal, many made from wild agave.

The most sought-after stuff is crafted deep in Oaxaca's rural communities and has tourists venturing out there. At the Real Minero Distillery, or Palenque, we met John Douglas, a bar owner who makes regular trips down from bourbon country Kentucky. So what gives? It's delicious, and there's a story behind it about flavor, about people, about histories,

about, geez, how exactly is this made? How many bottles did you bring home? Gosh, you're not the TSA, are you? Here, the agave roast is a smoky, well-choreographed ballet. Everyone knows their part. And in charge, Graciela Ángeles Carreño, a mezcalera with a reputation as a leader in the industry. Her family has been making mezcal since it was more bootleg than above board. And your grandmother sold mezcal from the back of a burro?

So my great-grandfather produced the mezcal, and my great-grandmother sold it. And why did she sell it? Because nobody inspected the women at the time. She made a special knock at the door, opened the door, and the woman with the donkey takes out her mezcal. Opens her store. The Carreño family distills in clay pots.

11,000 liters of mezcal a year, some 8,000 bottles. Many go for upwards of $100. Making artisanal mezcal is part science, part intuition. And it comes with a funk, which we saw and smelled inside Karenio's fermentation room. Right now it's not too fermented. You can put your mouth here and try it. Muy amargo.

Very bitter. Sí. Sí. ¿Pero sientes el alcohol? Yes, and you can taste the alcohol. It tastes like beer. Karenya showed us how she knows when it's ready for the next step. If I put my ear to it, listen, it's like a stomach. It is like a stomach. Oh, wow. How much time left for this?

I think maybe another four days. to it, listen, it's like a stomach. It is like a stomach. Oh, wow. How much time left for this? I think maybe another four days. This is where the flavor comes. This is your magic. Three hours south of Oaxaca City at the Perez family palenque, we met Lalo Perez,

a fifth generation mescalero. That's the next generation holding his hand. The whole family had just pulled an all-nighter, tending the fire for their roast. A community ritual. Neighbors came by in the morning to help stack the piñas. And Lalo's father, Tio Teo, watched over. How was the roast last night? Around eight in the morning,

we finally started stacking the piñas. We joked about being beat from the night before. But Lalo says making mezcal doesn't feel like work. From the moment I go out into the countryside to harvest agave, I feel like I want to taste it already. You're smiling when you tell me this. It's the joy that mezcal brings me. If you drink five glasses, it brings you even more joy. Lalo walked us through his agave varieties with names like Madre Cuiche and Tepestate. He told us each gives a unique

taste, herbal, mineral, earthy. Diotelio insisted we taste for ourselves and led us to his private stash where he keeps his prized batches. Muy diferente. Si, muy diferente. Wow. Tepestate is the winner. Lalo has taken over most of the manual labor from his dad using wooden mallets to crush the roasted agave. He distills batches of about 250 bottles at a time. But here's the thing.

Mezcal produced by the Perez family can't technically be called mezcal. It is made in the right region, using the right methods to qualify for denomination of origin. But Lalo told us he doesn't bother with the bureaucracy of getting it certified by government-approved regulators. You don't put the word mezcal on your bottles to sell. Does that bother you? On the contrary. To certify it, they practically tell you how to make your mezcal. An inspector comes and tells you, don't crush with wooden mallets. Water it down so that it'll pass lab tests, and then I'll certify it so you can sell it.

We don't need a government certifier to come and tell us how to make mezcal. There's no doubt in your mind that what's inside your bottles is mezcal? Maybe so, but Cinco Sentidos, the brand that bottles the Perez family's product for export, has to label the uncertified mezcal distilled agave. In bars around the world, that's become a selling point. Small batch enthusiasts clamor for obscure, limited-run bottles, and mezcal by any other

name still smells as sweet. Graciela Carreño chose to drop Denomination of Origin two years ago. Her main focus now is her plants. Once you harvest agave, that's it. This is not like grapes. The crop does not grow back each year. You can only benefit from it once in its lifetime, and it takes 30 years to give you its best. If mezcaleros obsess over their agave, it's because they're trying to avoid repeating tequila's mistakes.

Overplanting of blue agave used in tequila has rendered that plant more susceptible to disease. Carreño says she worries the same could happen to mezcal's workhorse variety, espadín. It's like tequila, only with mezcal we plant espadín, only espadín. The irony is on the world market, what people want most is not espadín, it's wild agave. But wild agave has its own problems. As production of mezcal has increased 700% from 10 years ago, some species of agave are vanishing. So Carreño germinates the seeds from 12 varieties in her nursery. How concerned are you about the future of the agave plant in Oaxaca?

Where do I start? On the one hand, we have economic success because this spirit that came from our community is now served in the most famous bars in the world. That makes me happy and proud as a Mexican and Oaxacan. What worries me is the environmental cost, the cultural cost, because it will not be free. So I think the crossroads right now is recognizing that we need to slow down a little. Carreño told us mezcal is a reminder to take a moment. So that's what we did. Later I'll tell you the percentage of alcohol because these are not low grade.

Oh, really? What? How many am I going to be? Enborracha? No, the main point is not to get drunk, it's to enjoy it. One bottle and enjoy it. Salud. Salud. A ti. Y bienvenida a ti.

Muchisimas gracias. Excelente. Thank you. Excellent.