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In an interview Tuesday with CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Katie Couric, President Barack Obama talked about some of his most meaningful moments during his first six months on the job.

“What’s the most fun you’ve had since you’ve been here, besides talking to me?” Couric quipped.

“Well, seeing those astronauts was pretty cool because I remember those guys when I was a kid and sitting on my grandfather’s shoulders in Hawaii and watching the astronauts come in and then to see them and shake their hands and listen to their stories. It was remarkable,” President Obama said. The Apollo 11 astronauts were honored at a White House ceremony on Monday marking the 40th anniversary of the moon mission.

Mr. Obama then reflected on some of the personal stories that people have told him as he’s traveled the country pushing his policies.

“The thing I probably enjoy most, though, is every time I have an opportunity to do a town hall meeting and I go out and I’m shaking hands and somebody tells me you know what, I kept health insurance that I had lost from my job because of the Recovery Act package that you passed or my clean energy company got started because you have emphasized that," he said. "Then you get a sense of ok, every once in a while what you’re doing is actually making a difference and that is really encouraging."

Katie Couric will interview President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, July 21.

Couric is working on questions now, so send her some suggestions on Twitter and she will try to use some!

The exclusive interview focusing on healthcare and other major issues will be broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Tuesday.

Couric will anchor the broadcast from Washington, D.C.

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Jeff Glor interviews Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Today in Washington, Katie sat down with President Barack Obama at the White House. Watch the full interview.

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office, Katie Couric spoke exclusively with him about his stances on several key issues, including the Gaza crisis and the U.S. economy. Watch more of that interview below:

Katie's anchoring the show tonight from Washington, D.C., where earlier today she exclusively interviewed President-elect Barack Obama. She asked him about the questions surrounding his pick for Treasury chief, Timothy Geithner, as well as how he'll work with Congress as president. Also: What did Mr. Obama say would be his No. 1 priority as president? And what was his reaction to the purported bin Laden tape?

What follows is excerpts from the interview (and a short video clip) – but be sure to watch the CBS Evening News tonight for more.

Katie Couric: A new Osama bin Laden tape was released. And in it he taunted President Bush.

President-elect Barack Obama: Right.

Couric: and basically called for a new jihad to stop the aggression on Gaza. What will you do differently to bring Osama bin Laden to justice?

Mr. Obama: Well, I think … I talked frequently during this campaign that we took our eye off the ball when we invaded Iraq. And now it's done. My job is to withdraw in a responsible way from Iraq and stabilize the situation there.

But our real focus ...

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When filming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Brad Pitt and director David Fincher were already familiar with each other, having worked together making "Fight Club" and "Se7en." But there would be nothing routine about making "Benjamin Button," their most ambitious collaboration yet. CBS News producer Matt Lombardi spoke with Fincher about taking the film from first draft to the big screen.

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CBS News: When did you first get this script? When the first time you hear about the project and this concept?

David Fincher: Actually I read the … first, first draft of this script, which was in '92. And I think Steven Spielberg was making it at the time with Tom Cruise. And it was mostly as like writing sample. Somebody kind of gave it to me as, "This is one of the great unmade screenplays." Either it was they were trying to get it off the ground or it was being shuttered. And then it sat on the shelf for at least 10 years, probably, well, nine years, 2001 is when I read the latest incarnation of it.

CBS News: And it sat on the shelf, why?

Fincher: I think it was too expensive. I also think that, you know, initially, the idea was to have a series of hand offs from one actor to another and probably needing as many as five or six different people just to play Benjamin.

CBS News: So the time you actually start looking at it seriously to possibly direct it, is that still the idea that we'll have a succession of actors playing this part?

Fincher: It's hard for me to remember. I think that that was … the closely held, you know, belief that that was the way that it was going to be accomplished. But when I give it to Pitt, you know … the first words out of his mouth were, you know, "If I'm gonna play this guy, I'm gonna play … the whole thing." I understood that and I actually was sort of anticipating that that's what he would say.

CBS News: So, it wasn't this, "What, are you crazy, Brad? There's no way."

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Director David Fincher's latest film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," tells the story of a life lived while aging backwards. The tale, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name, begins with a baby born with all of the wrinkles and arthritis of an 80-year-old man and follows his life as he grows into a semi-mobile senior, a middle-aged man and a strapping young adult. Brad Pitt plays Benjamin from the cradle to the grave – with more than a little help from some remarkable technology. Tonight on the Evening News, Katie Couric takes a behind-the-scenes look at how Pitt – er, at least Pitt from the neck up – went from elderly to infant … and everything in-between. Check out the clip after the jump to see Pitt demonstrating some of his, well, acting technique – and read on for an extended portion of our interview.

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Brad Pitt: This, you know … before, if you were attempting a film like this, you would have to plug in different actors or different ages … to … just to perform the thing. And … it always, I mean, becomes disjointed. Sometimes it connects, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the actors kinda look alike. But they seldom have the same kind of personality, or verve, or even dignity.

And in this … we, for the first time, got an opportunity to play the character from childhood to death, from birth to old age, or, in my case, from old age, which was still young, to birth. And, we got to drive the performance all the way. It was an … incredible luxury. It'll become the norm. Right now, it's a luxury.

CBS News: But I understand you're saying that now, but I understand when you read the script, you said, "That's what I want. I want to play it all." And how did you?

Pitt: Well, you have to ...

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Tony Maciulis is a CBS News producer based in New York.

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Don’t call his work “ripped from the headlines.” Novelist Richard North Patterson may write about some very timely themes, but he is generally ahead of the headlines.

His latest novel, "Eclipse," his fifteenth to date, was inspired by some historic events in Nigeria, but its implications will reach far into the future.

We had a chance to chat with him via email and telephone.

Q. You are not one to shy away from controversial subjects in your novels. You’ve written about abortion, gun control, the conflict in the Middle East – just about everything they tell us not to talk about at dinner parties! What inspired you to write about oil in Africa?

A. The genesis of "Eclipse" lies in tragic events that occurred in Nigeria almost fifteen years ago, when a courageous environmental activist, Kent Saro-Wiwa, was hanged by General Sani Abacha, the country’s brutal and corrupt dictator. The crime of which Saro-Wiwa stood accused, on flimsy evidence, was ordering the murder of four local chiefs who were his political rivals within the Ogoni, Sari-Wiwa’s ethnic group. The tribunal that tried him was summoned into existence by Abacha and answerable to him alone; its arbitrary proceedings had little in common with courts as we know them, or with other courts in Nigeria. In the minds of most observers, Saro-Wiwa’s true crime was to protest the excesses of the government and petroleum companies in the Niger Delta, and to seek for the Ogoni and others at least some of the benefits accruing to the oil companies and the kleptocratic regime of General Abacha. To this day ...

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CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips interviewed Israeli military analyst Alon Ben-David at the Israel-Gaza border. Following is a partial transcript of that interview.

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Alon Ben-David: We are at the beginning of the second phase of this operation where the idea is to give Hamas a sense of a genuine threat on the regime inside Gaza so we have Gaza encircled by the IDF…. I am not sure that this is a point where we want them to be. I think that Israel is trying to create a more stronger effect of deterrence on the other side so we are not quite there yet, the question I think is if we are going to go to the third phase or the second will suffice to reach those objectives.

Mark Phillips: What's the third phase?

Ben-David: The third phase naturally will be expanding the ground operation. You see the calling up of tens of thousands of reservists. Right now I think there is still genuine desire to avoid ...

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