Please welcome Christiane Amanpour.
(cheering and applause)
-(laughs) -Welcome back to the show.
-Thank you. -It's always good to have you here.
-Popping in... -I'm gonna unbutton like you.
-Oh, this is... Oh, you can do whatever. -Sorry. Yeah. Yeah.
You always look stylish. Uh, popping in from the U.K.
Here for a little bit. Um, this is interesting
because every time I see you,
-we-we talk about the news. -Yes.
You're deeply entrenched in the news.
But this is a different series.
Can I still talk to you about the news?
-You can. Yeah. -You...
-It's been a crazy news day. Right. -It has.
Uh, Robert Mueller subpoenaing Trump's businesses.
-The whole organization. -The whole organization.
With focus on any documents to deal with Russia business.
So l-let me ask this. What happens
if Mueller just finds that it's money laundering?
Does he walk away?
Uh, I don't know. I don't think so.
-Everybody's saying follow the money. -Follow the money.
-Yeah. -Except Trump. He's like, "Don't follow the money.
-Nothing to see here." -Well, I did like
your-your wonderful profile
of his new chief economic advisor.
-He's a fascinating man, isn't he? Kudlow. -Yeah.
-My favorite is the "there's no bubble. -Yeah.
There's no recession. There's no crisis."
-(cackles) Let's hope... -I feel like that's...
(laughter)
(applause)
-Oh... -Let's hope he's not the new North Korea negotiator, huh?
-Oh, man. "There's no nukes. There's nothing." -Yeah.
Um, let's talk about the series, 'cause this is different
-and this is... this is interesting. -Yes. Yes.
I feel like this is you doing a passion project.
-It is. Yeah. -Stepping out of the news and going,
"I want to focus on sex and life."
-What is the series about? -First of all,
I had to try to focus on something to give me
some respite from the stress of the times we live in, right?
-I can... I can understand. -So you can understand that.
Um, and I just was really fortunate
to have come up with this idea to have basically persuaded
and had this wonderful conversation
with Anthony Bourdain of Parts Unknown.
-Right. -You know him very well. He's on CNN.
And we decided that this was a great conversation to have.
And you can see I'm a little bit awkward as it starts.
There I am at a table, saying, "So, how's sex?"
-You know, I mean, it's not the most... -Right.
-not the most profound question. -Right.
However, it's very much fun.
This whole series and all the different cities
around the world is a lot of fun.
And, importantly, uh, again,
relative to one of your previous segments just now,
-these women are not shafted, so to speak. -Right.
These women are not victims.
These are the women who I found around the world
in all these cities, um, even with restrictive norms
around women, their lives, their sexuality,
who are actually trying to change the dynamic
and want to take their own happiness into their hands
and don't want to live their mother's lives,
-where everything was arranged. Marriage was arranged. -Right.
You know, they had to do everything according
to the family or according to the man.
And that-that is something that makes the series different,
-is that it really is a celebration -Yeah.
-of women controlling their sexuality -Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
within their different parameters around the world.
And-and it's interesting to see the dynamic.
-'Cause you go to different cities. -Yes.
You speak to different women.
One thing that really fascinated me was
-when you spoke about going to a war zone, -Yeah.
going to a war zone and speaking to wives and lovers
and saying, "How do you maintain your love and your sex
in the midst of a war?" 'Cause you-you don't think of that.
-I know. -Like, we-we see something happening in Syria.
We forget that somebody's smashing.
Exactly. (chuckles)
That is what actually inspired me to do the series.
-That very question about those very people. -Right.
Because all my career, I have done extreme reporting
in extreme conditions.
So I've-I've watched the human condition
in the most extreme circumstances.
And they're, you know, worried about survival,
worried about, you know, feeding their children,
-worried about staying alive, this and that. -Right, right.
And I thought, "But, you know what, there is another side
to the coin of the human condition."
And that side is happiness. It's, uh, love.
It's intimacy, it's sex, it's...
How do women, especially in these parts of the world,
actually express their most basic needs?
-Right. -How do they ask for what is their right?
Why do we all have the right to the pursuit of happiness
and fulfillment and all the rest of it and they don't?
In-in Japan, it's interesting, because you-you don't just talk
about the women who are unfulfilled
-but you talk about a culture where they're struggling -Yeah.
right now, because, you know, you talk about in the series,
I think it's 40% of Japanese men are virgins.
-Yes. I mean, it's extraordinary. -And...
Right. And many men and women have never touched.
-Yeah. -They don't touch in public. They don't know
how to communicate. And so sex is on the decline.
It's so on the decline and it's a very taboo subject
and they don't have words for "I love you"
-or they don't use those words. -Wow.
And there's a lot of really poignant in-interviews
in the Tokyo episode, which you just, uh, saw a clip from.
And at the end of this program, this episode,
we have this fabulous couple who want to buck this system
and buck this trend. And they've created this thing
called the Adoring Husband Society,
where, regularly, the husband has to go and stand
and shout and bellow "I love you" to their wives.
-And, you know what, it works. -That's-that's what they have
-to do? -Yes! As well as other things.
-But you start by doing that. -Wait, so-so they just...
you just... you walk out and then you're like, "I love you!
-I love you! I love you!" -Yes! Yes! Yes, yes!
-Watch the show. It's amazing. -And then... and then you smash?
Yeah, what is this "smash"?
(laughing)
Thank you so much for being on the show again.
Sex and Love Around the World premieres March 17
at 10:00 p.m. on CNN.
Christiane Amanpour, everybody.