Actor and producer Michael Douglas has used his celebrity status for years to call attention to nuclear disarmament and the global trade of small weapons. The two-time Academy Award winner visits Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to talk with lawmakers on behalf of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization that works to halt nuclear proliferation.
"The sight of the ruins left by the nuclear explosions in 1945 may seem a part of old history," Douglas said in an address to the United Nations. "Yet the fact is that the instruments of possible global annihilation ... many on high alert, remain a part of our contemporary history."
In 1998, Douglas was appointed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace — a title he shares with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, writer Elie Wiesel, primatologist Jane Goodall, and others. He serves on the board of directors for the Ploughshares Fund.
Douglas talks with host Neal Conan about how he has channeled his celebrity into advocacy work.
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