This week on "Sunday Morning" (May 12)

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

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Hosted by Jane Pauley

       
COVER STORY: Why does product design sometimes fail? It's complicated
Everywhere you look, products are getting too complicated, with more and more features aimed at attracting consumers. But designing things to do more can often lead to frustrated and unhappy customers. For designers, it's a constant and complex balance to get it just right. Correspondent David Pogue looks at how complicated lives – full of endless features – may be getting easier to navigate thanks to technology. 

For more info:

• Design consultant Jakob Nielsen (UX Tigers)
• "Behind the design: Meet Copilot" (Microsoft)
• BMW Group: Innovation
• "BMW reinvents itself: The BMW Vision Neue Klasse" (BMW)

       
ALMANAC: May 12
"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date.

ARTS: No wilting flowers: See stunning paper floral displays
They may not have much fragrance, but they look startlingly real and will never wilt or fade. Correspondent Conor Knighton talks with artists who create pristine peonies and pansies, life-like lilacs, and ridiculously large roses, using little more than paper, paint and glue.

For more info:

• Unwilted
• Quynh Nguyen (pinkandposey.com)
• Artist Ann Wood (Woodlucker) on Instagram
• Artist Tiffanie Turner on Instagram

TV: Iain Armitage on the final season of "Young Sheldon"
Iain Armitage, star of the CBS comedy "Young Sheldon," has pulled off a magic trick: helping carry a network TV hit for seven seasons while also growing up. Luke Burbank talks with the young actor about the show's finale; and with Jim Parsons (who created the character of Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory") and executive producers Steve Molaro and Steve Holland about the show's success, which has surprised even them.

For more info:

• "Young Sheldon" on CBS and Paramount+

STAGE: Tony-nominee Sarah Paulson: "If this is a dream, I don't wanna wake up"
Emmy-winning actress Sarah Paulson has been nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the comedy-drama "Appropriate," about siblings torn apart by unearthed secrets. She talks with correspondent Tracy Smith about how her mother accommodated Paulson's passion for acting, and why she still hasn't watched herself in "American Crime Story:" The People vs. O.J. Simpson." 

For more info:

• "Appropriate," at the Belasco Theatre, New York City (through June 23) | Ticket info
• Sardi's Restaurant, New York City

       

PASSAGE: In memoriam
"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.  

FASHION: Uniformity from designer Stan Herman
Alina Cho reports.

For more info:

• "Uncross Your Legs: A Life in Fashion" by Stan Herman (Pointed Leaf Press), in Hardcover, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and
• Bookshop.org

HARTMAN: TBD

       
MOVIES: "Back to Black" director says her new film puts Amy Winehouse "right back in the center of her story"
The new film "Back to Black" dramatizes the life and music of British singer Amy Winehouse, the charismatic, multiple-Grammy-winner whose struggles with drugs and alcohol led to her death at the age of 27. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with director Sam Taylor-Johnson about capturing a complex life on film; and with actress Marisa Abela, who describes how she inhabited the role of Winehouse from the inside out.

To watch a trailer for "Back to Black," click on the video player below:

For more info:

• "Back to Black" opens in theaters May 17

COMMENTARY: Fashion double-takes from the Met Gala
Correspondent Faith Salie reports on fashion's biggest night, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Benefit, where designs ranged from artful flowers to artfully positioned sand. 

For more info:

• The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• Met Gala 2024 red carpet looks (Vogue)
• Breaking down the 2024 Met Gala's biggest moments (WCBS)

TV: Bill Maher on not pulling a punch
Comedian Bill Maher, host of the HBO series "Real Time," doesn't discriminate between right and left when aiming his barbs at tribal politics. He talks with CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa about gladly courting controversy, whether by mocking politicians or inviting them to his show. He also discusses his new book, "What This Comedian Said Will Shock You."

For more info:

• "What This Comedian Said Will Shock You" by Bill Maher (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available May 21 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO and Max

              
COMMENTARY: Josh Seftel's mom on Mother's Day

For more info:      

• seftel.com

        
NATURE: Mustangs in South Dakota
           

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WEB EXCLUSIVES:

FROM THE ARCHIVES: The rites of spring (YouTube Video)
Watch stories from the "Sunday Morning" archives about the pleasures and annoyances of the season, from bird migrations, the spring thaw, and baseball's spring training, to gardening, spring cleaning, urban fishing in Chicago, and the dreaded "spring ahead."  [Featured: Bill Geist on the annual return of buzzards to Hinckley, Ohio (2008); a portrait of life along the Mississippi River as spring thaw commences, by Richard Threlkeld (1981); Charles Osgood on spring training with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with baseball great Frank Howard (1998); Cynthia Bowers on professional organizers tackling spring cleaning chores (2006); Bill Geist on the Chicago tradition of urban fishing for spring smelts (1993); a gardener at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden explains to David Culhane the care of bonsai trees (1990); and Bill Geist visits the Watch Man, a Laughlin, Nevada watch salesman who must "spring forward" 20,000 timepieces for Daylight Saving Time (2000).]

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

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"Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

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Follow us on Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; and at cbssundaymorning.com.  

You can also download the free "Sunday Morning" audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you'll never miss the trumpet!

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David Morgan

David Morgan is senior producer for CBSNews.com and the Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning." He writes about film, music and the arts. He is author of the books "Monty Python Speaks" and "Knowing the Score," and editor of "Sundancing," about the Sundance Film Festival.

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